No One Will Ever Take Your Place
by Cassandra IV
Summary: Just when Sakura and Syoaran thought that their relationship was just about carved in stone, a rival comes to the scene and the plot inevitably thickens. It looks like this new stranger has a tale of her own to tell. What's destiny after all? SS
1. First Fault

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

Author: Victoria Tang

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Comments: Oh my. I look back on this fic and can't help but giggle. But since I've got enough reviews to stop me from deleting this completely, I thought I'd just settle for revising it. Again. You can forgive me for wanting to. Anyhow, I wanted to change the title, too- but unfortunately I suck at thinking up titles and since readers know this fic by this name I figured I'd just keep it. Couldn't hurt. Thanks for supporting, guys. And just to let you know- those suggestions you make with your reviews? I do look at them, and trust me, I do consider them. Keep it up.

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Prologue

Four years ago.

He remembered, on the first day she had stepped foot into Furinkan High School, she had been late for her ninth grade orientation. High school started a half hour earlier than elementary school had, and unfortunately for her, she had forgotten to change her alarm clock to adjust to this transition.

From that embarrassing moment onwards, usually one would think a lesson would be learned in this whole constant-bowing-and-apologizing procedure to excuse her tardiness, however—

"_Sakura!" _

Kinomoto Touya practically bellowed from the bottom of the staircase. No dice. Sophomore year, and she was still running late for classes. Using his natural brotherly instinct, Touya knew for absolute certain that his younger sister had not even stirred from her deep slumber. That, and with all that snoring…

With an exasperated bang, Touya slammed shut the door to the laundry machine and began to carry the full laundry basket back up the stairs—normally Sakura's duty.

As he fumbled to keep the basket balanced on his hip, Touya rapped the door with his knuckles. "Are you deaf, kid? Your alarm went off ten minutes ago. Dad's already gone, so he won't be able to drive that lazy butt of yours to school if you're late." Glancing at the abnormally large clock just down the hall—he turned back to her bedroom door. "Yeah, did I forget to mention that if you don't wake up at most two seconds you're going to be _really_ late?"

This time, he paused to listen for any awakening sounds that hinted Sakura regaining consciousness, but just sighed heavily to hear the snores get significantly louder from the other side of the door.

"Come on! Or else I'll take the liberty of eating the lunch Dad made you this morning," Touya threatened. If Sakura was even close to waking up, she was too thick-skulled to ignore a comment like that. "Your breakfast is cold, so I don't want it…"

When no answer greeted him yet again, as expected, he just groaned. "Fine. I'm coming in there, you've been given fair warning…" he threatened, but to no avail. Rolling his eyes all the while shaking his head, Touya just twisted the doorknob and strolled in. Then, as if it were a completely normal thing to do, he took the laundry basket and chucked it at Sakura's head.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"_What are you so worried about?"_

An unfamiliar girl asked in an annoyingly high-pitched, flirtatious voice as she trailed her slender fingers lightly down Syoaran Li's arm. Sakura's eyebrows raised in surprise at the ostentatious way the girl was touching him—just like that. Who _was_ she, and why in the world did she look so… _smug_ in Syoaran's presence?

Stepping forward, Sakura was prepared to act her role as the jealous girlfriend when a single act caused her stomach to come crashing to the ground. Syoaran wrapped his tan, muscular arms around the girl in question in one agonizingly slow motion, then turned and stared right at her.

Was this some sort of sick joke? Sakura felt all the blood rush to her cheeks, and didn't know whether they were burning from disbelief or embarrassment or both. Her gaze quickly dropped to her rounded pink shoes. What was _that_ supposed to mean? Why would he embrace somebody else, in front of her, no less?

As if on cue to replying to her mental demand for an explanation of the situation, the—irritatingly attractive girl looked up at Syoaran, her long eyelashes perfectly framing and accentuating her exotically-rimmed eyes, sparkling like a pair of smoky-grey diamonds.

"_You don't need to be shy. The guilt is gone—it's been how long since we got rid of that horrid girl? I'll be here for you now. All you have to do is look at me."_ The girl leaned in to whisper something into his ear, and ended her statement by nibbling gently on his ear.

Sakura stepped backwards, begging herself and all her sanity to allow her to look elsewhere, but something prevented her from doing so. This scene was almost disturbing—should she feel anxious, or angered by these circumstances? Why was she being aware of all these needless complications? It was clear that although Syoaran looked her way, he couldn't see her. This was a dream.

"_It was for the greater good, Syoaran. It was for our sakes." _Her voice dropped low, almost seductive tone. "_I crushed her like the insufferable cockroach she is—just the way she deserved to be crushed for getting in our way."_

To Sakura's minimal relief—Syoaran turned away from her and lightly pulled her wrists off of him. "_You don't understand. The Sakura Cards—they represent us. The hard work that Sakura and I had to put into obtaining and transforming those cards—"_ Syoaran cut himself off, obviously feeling… _reluctant_ in some way about this whole situation. Then again, why _shouldn't_ he be reluctant about this? Why wasn't he pushing her away?"

Sakura put a hand to the back pockets of her roomy, boy-sized cargo pants. She had the cards with her wherever she went, so at least that meant _something_. However, when the girl withdrew them from her _own_ pocket, Sakura's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. You could only imagine the panic that overcame her when her heart was sent to hyperdrive as she searched her pockets frantically, and even more so when a chilling emptiness greeted her hand as realization smacked her right in the head.

"_They are no longer the Sakura Cards, Syoaran. They pay allegiance to the name, M-"_

"—Sakura Kinomoto, are you just going to lie there, drowning in clothing?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Sakura Kinomoto, are you just going to lie there and drown in clothing?" Touya exclaimed. Sakura screamed and jerked her head up, fully conscious when her entire body lurched forward as if she were breaking free from a deep slumber. This, in hindsight, was true.

Touya took the basket off of her head and rubbed his chin where she had crashed into him during her hasty spaz when she awoke. "Feisty as usual. You're going to be late. So hurry up and get dressed- your alarm went off fifteen minute ago."

Suddenly, the real Sakura was back.

In a startled yell, she started screaming yet again while Touya made his way downstairs to fetch himself some earplugs.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I'm _late!"_ Sakura yelled out in a wail, although she really wasn't- as she snapped off her rollerblades and quickly exchanged them in her locker with her running shoes and began running toward her classroom. "Syoaran!"

She was in high hopes of seeing him early that morning. All she needed was one kiss, and the doubt of him she had acquired from her nightmare would inevitably fade away. Without any further hesitation she burst into the classroom. To her surprise, there was already a girl there, one she didn't recognize who was talking to her high school homeroom teacher, Mr. Geruga. They were conversing, and with her sudden outburst, the two of them had turned to stare.

"Oh... my. Good morning, Geruga-sensei." Sakura bowed slightly, a light blush taking color in her cheeks. "Good morning." The second was directed to the new transfer student. She simply just smiled. "I'm sorry to have interrupted."

"Don't be. My name is Gwen," she introduced, a Mandarin accent biting into her Japanese as she shook Sakura's hand. "I just transferred here from Hong Kong. Are you a friend of Syoaran's?"

Sakura nodded her head, relieved that she didn't seem agitated from having her impolitely just burst in on her conversation with the teacher. In fact, Sakura almost figured just then that she'd made a new friend. But how did she know Syoaran? As if replying to her thoughts, Gwen plowed on. "I used to go to his school back in China," she explained. "My full name is Giushoakaisaaru Wen Mu, but I just call myself Gwen. Less complicated."

"I see." Sakura giggled appreciatively at the lengthiness of Gwen's name, before her attention was turned to the door as it slid open—just in time for Syoaran to walk in. "_I _know Syoaran because we've been in the same homeroom for around four years now."

"Hey," Syoaran said, looking a bit taken aback at the newcomer before leaning in to give Sakura a quick peck on the cheek. "This is…?"

"Gwen," Sakura finished for him, but she couldn't help but sense a hint of shock coming from her after that kiss. What was wrong with something so casual? Then she remembered. "Ah, she said you two knew each other. You don't recognize her?"

Gwen shook Syoaran's outstretched hand, but she hardly felt it. This couldn't be happening. Jesus, did this boy ever stay single?

"Oh," Gwen began, clearing her throat and plastering on another beautiful, two-faced smile. "So I take it you two are dating, hm? Taken again, I see. Ever the lady's man." She joked, winking. Sakura cocked her head to the side and squinted at her for a moment. For someone she just met, this girl looked dreadfully familiar. Could she have been the girl from her dream?

…Impossible. Apparently, that girl's name had started with an M. Could it be Meiling?

Again, not possible. The girl's hair in her dream was not nearly long enough to be Meiling's.

A desk and a fomal classroom introduction later, Gwen found herself twirling her favorite silver, metal 0.7 lead mechanical pencil around her fingers in perfect rhythm. Her notebook was spread open in front of her, but she had already learned these concepts that Mr. Geruga was currently explaining. This was the academic class? She had learned this eons ago.

Instead of listening to his useless rambling as review, she decided the class would be more productively spent trying to expand any possible scheme…

…For her to get Syoaran Li back.

This time, for good. She wasn't about to let him disappear again—not unless she had something to say about it. Spinning her pencil once more before clicking on the top to bring out about two millimeters worth of lead, Meiling began to use her neat, educated cursive writing in English which the Japanese teacher wouldn't be able to comprehend even if he looked over it to jot down any interesting point that came to mind."

They say, "You never forget your first love." That was exactly her position in Syoaran's history of girlfriends, however short or long it may be now that she hadn't had contact with him in years. She smiled, reliving the delicious moments of her childhood past. She felt the need to make sure that this Sakura girl who thought she was so fit to be with her Syoaran got a lesson. Rapping the end of her pencil against the surface of the desk in a beat, Gwen ventured deeper into thought.

Even thought Syoaran didn't look it, he was definitely the kind who appreciated social status. Especially the kind of girl with social status that wasn't some brainless, idiotic, dimwitted whore. That was precisely the kind of girl that Gwen wasn't going to be. For the popularity did, it definitely didn't hurt that she was new—which made her stand out to begin with. Good.

_It sure doesn't do any more damage, the fact that I happen to be gorgeous. It shouldn't be much of a trouble becoming the popularity butterfly in this pathetic little school. _She chewed on her glossy lower lip thoughtfully. _I'll just have to play it sweet until I get what I want._

Her favorite tale in Aesop's stories was the one about the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. Sakura may think she's ahead and secure now with Syoaran, but all that was about to change.

_If there's one piece of advice I'd give to front-runners in this world, _she thought as she looked tentatively up at Mr. Geruga who was double-checking to see if any of this was over her head,_ It'd be: Watch your back._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The day was long and dreary by the time fourth period rolled along.

"Lunch! Oh, thank God. I don't want to look at another quadratic equation ever again. Notice how the homework is always so shockingly repetitive?" Sakura stretched out her right arm, the fingers of her left hand intertwining with Syoaran's digits. As she lowered her arm, she eyed Syoaran, whose hands were both empty. "Not a big eater…? Where's your lunch?"

Sitting down on a ledge, Syoaran somehow withdrew a packaged bun from his pocket—bought somewhere from a bakery. Sakura just made a face and nibbled contently on her own homemade sandwich, packed by her father. Her last for a short while considering her father had gone on a business trip in Beijing for the next three weeks.

Behind them, Gwen was loitering around the school doors with a gaggle of so-called friends she had happened to attract, when she finally caught sight of the two—practically melting together by the trees like lovesick fleabags. Disgusting.

Deciding to take some action, Gwen excused herself from her buddies and slung her shoulder bag over her neck before taking a running start across the yard and whacking Syoaran lightly on the shoulder, displaying the surprise element.

"You_ are_ him! I knew you looked familiar!" She exclaimed as she plopped down on his other side, making a distinct point not to acknowledge Sakura's presence. Then her face fell. "Oh," she began, touching her lip thoughtfully, almost apologetically in such a way that no one could resist forgiving her. "I'm not… interrupting anything, am I?"

Suddenly, Syoaran's jaw dropped open. "_Giu-chan?"_ He asked tentatively, just to make sure. When he saw that familiar bright, wide smile, he started laughing as she stretched her arms out and they broke out into an impromptu hug, full of laughs and smiles.

"My God, Li! You've grown so much. I'd never _thought_ we'd ever end up at the same high school. I knew you were in Tokyo too, but the same _school_, too? Unbelievable! We're in the same homeroom, no less!"

Breaking apart from her, Sakura could have sworn she saw the same twinkle in his eyes that she was sure he shared only with her. "I didn't even know you were coming to Tokyo. No one told me about it. I would've picked you up from the airport or something."

Feeling rather awkward, Sakura stood up and gathered her things. Gwen smiled, stealing a glance at Sakura. At first, she had thought Sakura was rather cute, and friendly. But now—

Plain. Plain, plain, pain.

That's all Sakura Kinomoto seemed to be compared to absolute jewel like Gwen.

"Um, Syoaran?" Sakura asked kindly, turning over to her boyfriend. "I'm going to talk to Tomoyo. I'm sure you have lots to catch up on." With that, she quickly skittered towards her best friend, who seemed surprised to have Sakura confront her when she should be in Syoaran's company.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Well, before the bunch of you start chucking something insane like papers and rocks at me," Mr. Geruga began, bending over his desk putting his hands on both ends of it and leaning forward. "I'm going to have to say you guys are going to be assigned a large assignment to do." He seemed absolutely shocked that the class remained silent without even a single complaint. "You'll work in fours, and the topic will be something fantasy-based. A myth or legend, preferably. Display your best English, since this is practice for your culminating report."

After tapping his finger twice on the wooden surface of his desk, the class erupted into loud pandemonium.

Syoaran laughed at the punchline of Yamasaki's joke. He actually hadn't heard a single thing his best friend had said; he couldn't even pick out Yamasaki's voice from the din. As the class began to settle down, Syoaran was finally able to make himself heard.

"Okay, so our usual group: there's you, Sakura, and me. I want Gwen to be in the group— she's my old friend from HK—but Sakura probably wants Tomoyo, so I'm not too sure how we'd be able to go about this."

Yamasaki frowned. "That's true, you're right. This is a sticky situation- Tomoyo's got just as much right to be in this group as I do. We're both best friends of the real couple."

Sakura meandered over to Syoaran's desk, sitting delicately on a corner. "Hey, we're in a group, right?" She asked, tracing small infinity signs on his desk.

"Aren't we always?" Syoaran retorted smugly. Then he turned around. "Gwen! Over here!"

Sakura looked up in surprise as Gwen got up—almost as if she were expecting him to invite her in— and made her way over. "What's going on?" She asked in a quiet whisper, "Just what are we going to do about Tomo-chan?"

"Syoaran, can I talk to you for a second?" Yamasaki asked, and practically dragged Syoaran to the side to avoid this whole girl-exclusion situation.

As if on cue to make things much more devastating, Tomoyo came up next to Sakura. "I've been thinking about the possible topics, and I've got this great idea about Greek mythology…" as if she were a completely different person, Gwen laid one perfectly manicured hand hard on the table.

"So sorry, Daidouji-san. Our group's already _been_ decided." She added with a sinister grin, "You're just going to have to take your idea elsewhere."

Tomoyo's mouth dropped open a little, perhaps from a gasp at her chance in personality—perhaps to say something, but she closed it shortly nonetheless. "O…Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought—"

"Hey! What on earth is your problem?" Sakura defended, her big, brilliant green eyes turning into a harsh glare for behaving this way towards her best friend. The optimistic light had faded from Tomoyo's eyes, and her excited expression had turned into—was that…?—a grim look? It was only for a moment, because in another second another bright smile was up on Tomoyo's face.

"Oh, don't worry about it, then. I'll just double up with somebody else." She added more or less enthusiastically than usual, trying to sound as offbeat as possible before turning on her heel and curtly walking towards the mob of people that were the class.

"I know that may have seemed a bit rude," Gwen began in her usual, sweet tone as Syoaran and Yamazaki came by to tell them that they were going to discuss with Mr. Geruga possible topics for their presentation. "I'm not trying to act prissy, it's just—I want to be with Li as much as possible. Is it possible, that you two are… _serious?"_

Sakura turned a beet red in color almost immediately. An obvious no. "What? No—No way. We're just going steady!"

_Just steady. How plain. _As _if_ she should have expected anything more than that.

"Oh, I see." Gwen said nonchalantly, looking down at her nails. Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What about you? Why would you want to know? I can sense the two of you have some sort of history that surpasses ordinary friendship."

"Yeah, I guess." Gwen said finally, and chewed her lower lip with uncertainty, yet Sakura almost thought she could see a faint trace of smugness. "It is not my intention to… stir things up between the two of you. You know, just when you two are beginning to get relatively close. Would you honestly like to know?"

Trying her best to shrug off the fact that they were close even four years ago, Sakura hesitated for a moment. The way she said those words—it sounded so _shocking._ She had been curious since minute one about Syoaran's relationship with Gwen, and even more so now that they appeared so close—too close for comfort.

Not that she was worried about her position as Syoaran's girlfriend, mind you. But he seemed just like the type she'd assume he'd like…

"We used to… be together." Gwen said, shrugging lightly as she looked down at the desk. Picking up Syoaran's black pen, she began to doodle her signature on an empty page of his notebook over and over. "Actually, we were engaged as well—but that was set up by our parents."

The breath caught in Sakura's throat—_engaged?_ But if they were just little kids at the time, it couldn't have been so bad… right?

"You could say that the arranged marriage was partly formed from us. Syoaran and I were in love even before the engagement was set up, so our parents decided to take advantage of it and use us as a merger for our two businesses. Our parents have been close family friends ever since."

She'd be lying if she said that hearing Gwen speak about Syoaran as a lover—if even in the past—didn't unnerve her. Sakura crossed her arms and rubbed them vigorously, just listening to this gave her the chills. But hadn't she asked for this? She had asked to know, but—learning this from Gwen seemed improper.

Just then, Gwen leaned over on the desk and drummed her perfectly manicured nails on the surface of the table. "Hey, you wield the Clow Cards, don't you? So that means I can talk about them?"

Sakura's eyebrows raised and she swore her heart skipped a beat in panic. "How did—"

Leaning back, Gwen swept a hand in front of her face, as if telling her she knew all about it. "Oh, please. My family and Syoaran's family has known about them for generations. An old friend of mine—Meiling—was the one who broke our engagement. To have Syoaran move here to Tokyo, so that he could look for them as the descendant. We never cut the strings—it just _happened._ I guess it's a bit late for me to renew our relationship, since you're with him and all. Looks like I'll just have to sit and wait."

Although it was put nicely enough, Sakura couldn't help but look at the small details of Gwen's words. Sit and _wait?_ Wait for what? She had absolutely no intention of ending things with Syoaran. Close to ever.

"Anyway, I feel silly for rambling on." Gwen looked past Sakura's shoulder and got up. "I'll talk to you later, okay? I think Syoaran's looking for me." Ina blink, she disappeared across the classroom. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows as she walked along towards Tomoyo to apologize. Looking for 'her?' Where'd she get off, saying something like that? If Syoaran were looking for somebody, chances are it would be her. However, when she caught sight of Syoaran, she was almost surprised to see that he looked like he _was_ searching for somebody. Shocked when she saw a look of pure relief spread over his face when he found Gwen approaching him, the two of them walked back to their table—and Syoaran gallantly offered the chair that Sakura had previously been sitting on, beside him.

He knew how she easily worried about the silliest things. If Gwen really was such a big piece of his life—

How could he keep something like this from her?

The walk home with Syoaran was silent and awkward. At least, for her it was. All Syoaran could do was talk about Gwen, and how much they needed to catch up, and how he would take her to all the amazing places in Tokyo.

It wasn't until they reached his house to start on the project research that Syoaran slammed the door to his bedroom shut and turned around to face her. "So why are you avoiding me?" He asked matter-of-factly, trying to find some indication in her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me? …About you and Gwen's relationship?" Sakura cried out angrily, despite herself as she eyed him furiously. "It's not like I keep secrets from you. It's obvious that Gwen still wants you, and I don't think it's fair that _you_ get to—"

--Outside of the room where she was screaming her lungs out like there was no tomorrow, Gwen reached the exterior of Syoaran's unnaturally large home. So this was like it was like in Tokyo, hm? She knew his family was loaded, and she wasn't exactly used to 'modest' homes herself, but this was just _huge._

Knocking politely on Syoaran's door, she was subsequently invited in by a elderly butler. Obediently the man obliged to her request to show her to the young master's room, having recognized her from serving his family back in China. After thanking him, she knocked once on the door, before twisting the doorknob and slipping inside.

"Come on Sakura, I didn't think it was worth mentioning. It'd only make you worry, and make an unnecessary fuss about it. And you're proving just my point by acting this way!" Syoaran was yelling back, "you don't even _know_ Gwen!"

Sakura's eyes were wide, like a wounded puppy dog, as she was backed up against the wall—probably speechless since Syoaran had never spoken to her this way. Come to think of it, Gwen couldn't think of any other time she'd seen him speak the way he was. Stepping backwards, Sakura bumped clumsily into Syoaran's desk, several of the Sakura Cards fluttering to the ground from her uniform's pocket. Too upset to even notice, Sakura darted from his room as fast as she could—presumably out of his house, as well, but Gwen wasn't about to follow her to make sure.

"That went well," she mused quietly, and Syoaran whirled around in surprise to find her standing over his bed. "Uncle Fei let me in." She set her bag down on the ground and sat down on the mattress. "She really didn't know… huh? I'm hurt. You never told her about me?"

"So you're the one who told her," Syoaran said, exasperated as he flopped down on the bed beside her. Gwen just shrugged. "She's the one who asked about us. I figured it would do no harm to tell her. Besides, otherwise she'd just suspect me for liking you if I kept hanging around you like I did today. Seriously, if she's so upset at you for having a past, is she _really_ the girl you love?"

Syoaran rolled onto his stomach and closed his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. "I thought so…" he slurred sleepily, before falling into a faint slumber.

Gwen smiled down at his face, looking almost childish and perfect—what with the setting sun sending several orange rays of light onto his soft face. Curling up beside him, she closed her eyes and joined his dreams.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

What was the boy _thinking?_

The same traitorous thoughts were still harboring Sakura's mind as she sadly entered the classroom the next day with a couple of new materials for her project. She glanced over at Syoaran, who was over on the computer looking up information that should have been completed the afternoon before. Gwen was looking his shoulder, with one hand on his thigh to hold her up as she leaned over to peer at the computer desk. As Sakura approached, she knelt back over the ground and continued to glue a bunch of pictures onto a board. The Clow Cards were an ancient Chinese myth, which was the main topic of their project. Sakura, spirits brightening over the progress of their assignment, admired the way Gwen's cards looked nearly identical to her Sakura Cards. She then watched as Syoaran got up and left the room, probably for a washroom break, which gave her plenty of time to talk to Gwen.

That was, until she felt the pull of a powerful aura. Her eyes were then drawn to those cards—that looked—well, almost real.

_Too_ real.

"Oh my God!" Screamed Sakura, lunging forward. "What's your problem? Those cards are mine!" She grabbed at the poster, delicately taking the cards off of the drying poster. Gwen looked appalled and attempted to slap her hands off.

"What in God's name are you doing, Kinomoto? Don't you dare touch my poster!"

Sakura glared hard at her, outrage and fury rising from within her, despite her usual, cheery self. "Listen to me. Those happen to be _my cards_, and if you know it. If you're not going to give them to me, I'm going to _take_ them back!"

"Is that so?" Gwen shouted, when a taunting grin crept over her face. Her eyes never leaving Sakura's face, she stood up and poured yet another glob of white, crazy glue over the back of another card in her hand. Sakura stood mortified as she watched Gwen pour that… _stuff_ over her precious legends.

"I told you to _stop_ that!" Sakura grabbed at the cards still lying on the table beside her, and snatched the gluey mix from Gwen's grasp, taking several paper towels off the counter to the side and wiping off as much of the offenders as she possibly could. Gwen watched in faked horror as Sakura took the rest of the cards from the Bristol board, ripping around the board so that she would be able to slowly detach the cards later. Sakura glanced up to see her eyes shimmering with—was that _pleasure?_ No, impossible—how could she seem satisfied with Sakura ripping her project apart? It must have been anger she saw, yet…

"Are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Gwen yelled, grabbing Sakura's wrist with surprising strength. "You just ruined our project! You _want_ to fail? Then fail by yourself! You didn't do a single thing to contribute, and yet you wreck it, just like that?"

Syoaran, who had come back to the classroom, was immediately stripped of his attention as he watched in horror at Gwen and Sakura wrestling each other for the custody of the... wait, the Sakura Cards?

Syoaran took one step forward to get inbetween the two of them—when something made him pause and nearly stumble. It was true he needed to help one of them, but who was he to help? Who was the cause of this? Just then Gwen whirled around to the door and caught sight of Syoaran. He couldn't just stand there when they knew he was there, so he jogged over just in time for tears to trickle artfully down her pale cheeks—somehow playing the role of the wounded puppy—and unimaginably well. "I'm sorry, Li." She whispered quietly to him. She looked back to Sakura, who was standing a fair meter behind her, fists clenched at her sides. "I really can't handle this." Pushing the chair in front of her aside, she brushed past him as she ran out of the room.

Sakura stared at the open door in awe as Gwen left. She was _quite_ the actress. After all that, her little scheme played Sakura out to be the antagonist.

Syoaran looked from the door and turned to face Sakura angrily, kicking the chair Gwen had pushed out of the way to the side perhaps as a warning before turning and sprinting out of the classroom after Gwen, as fast as his long legs would carry him.

Sakura leaned back against the computer desk for support as she felt her legs weaken. _What the hell was __**that?**_She thought in disbelief, her mouth slightly agape. He hadn't wanted her to stop Gwen? Gwen, who had nearly destroyed the cards that she and Syoaran had worked so hard to attain and transform together?

Just then, the loud bell signaling the end of class rang overhead of her, and her gaze dropped to the cards in her hands. Apologizing to both her startled classmates and the awed teacher standing nearby, she slowly took off her bag and kneeled onto the floor, slipping the outstanding cards back in with the rest of the deck when she took out a photo of Syoaran and her—one she always kept with her. He had a matching one in his wallet.

_I can't lose you, Syoaran. I can't give you up. I won't._

She knew it was petty, but she had never felt more strongly of anything in her life.

"Kinomoto-_san_." Sakura felt Gwen's powerful presence behind her even before she turned around to face her. "I implore you to give me back those cards while still given an option."

"No." Sakura replied curtly, drawing the finishing designs of tarot cards onto a birstol board for her own separated project with Tomoyo and Saki. Where did this girl get off, anyway, ordering her around? They weren't friends. They were barely even acquaintances.

"Oh, don't be such a priss. I already know the history behind those cards. Even a simple girl like you should be able to see by now that Syoaran has feelings for me."

"Shut up."

"Say whatever you want now, but just remember: I hope you didn't _actually_ think you could ever snag a guy like Syoaran for good. Like I'd ever let a plain, ordinary-looking girl like you get him. And with competition like _me_ around here now, you have even less of a chance."

Sakura got up, her eyes emotionless as she looked Gwen hard in the face. Picking up her board, she rolled it up, her eyes never leaving Gwen's face, before flicking them in the direction of the clock on the wall. "Ooh. Look at the time. Get gone."

With that, Sakura herself walked quickly towards the exit of the school on her way home, with a confidence that she had never seen herself use before.

God.

How _completely_ messed up.

The last thing she would have imagined that would happen between Syoaran and her would be this—a third member threatening to mess the two of them up. And here she thought everything was so perfect. Sakura sighed as she turned on her way up to Penguin Park. _I guess I am just plain and ordinary, like Gwen says._ She thought, just a bit sadly as she compared herself to the other girls in school—adorned in fancy jewelry and excessive makeup. _I guess it'd be easy for someone like Syoaran to get tired of me._

Gwen was exciting. She was exotic and new, plus she had Syoaran had shared some chemistry in the past that never truly disappeared. She looked up from the gravel and froze. Syoaran was in the center of the park, conversing quietly with Gwen again. How on earth did that horrid girl manage to walk so fast ahead of her, anyway? And find Syoaran, no less? He was pushing her gently on a swing, with a kind of gentleness that made her stomach queasy.

She had no desire to confront either of them, much less interrupt them. Slowly, she inched her way around them, however within a radius that allowed her to eavesdrop in her respective position, even thought it was not her intention.

"I cannot believe this. I can't believe _her."_ Gwen was saying as Syoaran gave her another push. "How are we supposed to finish our project without those cards? She's definitely trying to provoke me."

Syoaran remained speechless for a short while. The finally he spoke up. "Those cards—there's more to them than you might think. They're more than just entities of power." He reasoned. "You shouldn't try to use them as a subject for our project. You said our topic would be interesting and safe. Stealing Sakura's personal objects aren't fair."

"This summative is due tomorrow!" Gwen exclaimed, stepping into the sand to stop the swing from moving as she whirled around to face him, her eyes open and seemingly honest. "I'd finished everything else—no thanks to her. All we needed were no cards. I tried asking her for a copy of them today, but she wouldn't oblige to such a simple request. I asked her today—and she snapped at me."

_Oh, clever. You did not. _Sakura thought sourly. _Bitch._

"Is that so?" Syoaran asked, his eyebrows pointed downward in confusion. "Sakura never exactly struck me as the type to be so…. Inflexible. Perhaps I should try to get you back on her good side. After all, we've got a project due."

Gwen didn't respond to that. She just smiled flirtatiously, making Sakura feel incredibly ill as she creeped behind the bushes. She could see the pathway leading to her house from here. Giving one last glance at the two of them, she caught them just in time to see Gwen move in a comfortable position and, without any further notice, kissed Syoaran.

Syoaran's mind seemed to scatter momentarily. He could remember how it was like... to kiss Gwen. It had been ages, and it felt so... _real._

Wait. But what about Sakura?

Sure, the two of them had been through much together, but between her and Gwen, he wasn't so sure Sakura would be the one he'd choose. After all, ever since Gwen arrived she's been acting so... iffy. At the moment, he was leaning to Gwen rather than Sakura. He deepened the kiss, and ended up holding her in a passionate embrace that sent shivers up Sakura's spine.

"..."

This seemed too much to bear. If they _were_ going to do something like _that_, why do it in a park that Syoaran _knew_ Sakura would encounter on her way home? Did he _want_ her to see that? Sakura tried to get out of there as quickly as possibly, but she had to cut through onto the pavement. When she did, the heels of her feet made a distinct clacking sound on the stone path. Syoaran opened his eyes and caught sight of her. Immediately, he broke the kiss and pulled apart from Gwen

_Sakura...!_ He thought, beginning to panic. He scrambled back onto his feet and began to give chase, who had already started jogging to get away from them faster when Gwen stopped him by pulling back on her left wrist. She was still as strong as ever.

"Choose, Li." She whispered sternly, as Sakura ran out of sight, making the distance between the two of them even greater. "Her... or me?"


	2. Second Kiss

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Chapter Two

This was straight out of a soap opera.

Even in the Top 10 of sophomore athletics, her legs couldn't carry her fast enough. Her legs were aching from the lack of warming up. She almost regretted not wearing her rollerblades that day, despite the length she had to walk to get to the school.

_Jerk! _The word sprang into Sakura's mind. It was almost painful to think back and see the smug look n Gwen's face when she embraced Syoaran—and even more so when he never pulled back. Quite the contrary, point in fact.

Forcing an indifferent look, Sakura refused to wear any expression than that of neutrality. That, however, didn't stop the tears. She brushed the stray ones away irritably as she fumbled in her bag for her house keys. _Whose boyfriend are you supposed to be? I should've known something would've happened between the two of you. _Anger seemed like an understatement for what she felt inside. Emotion churned in her stomach, and she was roiling with compressed fury. She practically slammed the door open to get through, tossing her bag to the wooden floor. She was about to make her way up to her room to cheerfully cry her eyes out when Touya stopped her.

"I need to be alone," Sakura managed out with a relatively steady tone when Touya greeted her, and tried her best to brush past him to get to the staircase. _Ending things between us before sucking face with some pretty girl was the least you could do._ Sakura mentally screamed at her _former_ boyfriend before she felt Touya's strong grip encircle her wrist.

"Sakura…? What's wrong?" He watched as Sakura pulled away. Fresh tears brimmed her eyes, and they were already beginning to sting and sore.

"I love you," she whispered quietly, not being able to manage her throat from closing in around her voice anymore as she quickly ran the length of the stairs to her room.

It was only until after she closed her bedroom door, heard the soft click of her lock, and slid down the door onto the ground did her tears pour down like a faucet. Somehow, she just felt more miserable than she had seconds ago.

How could she have just ignored Touya that way, when he was only worried about her?

"This is impossible. What a terrible day." And to think, that yesterday she had thought her life to be a paradise until Gwen rolled along. She wiped her tears and looked surprised at her computer when a familiar bleep sounded from her computer speakers. Rolling to her side, she reached over and opened her inbox. I'm sorry.

Was that all he could say? "I'm sorry?"

Sakura glared hard at the email. She promptly ignored it, because no matter _what_ he said, she knew he had definitely enjoyed that kiss. She knew all too well the expressions he had on his face when he kissed _her_, and he looked even happier when making out with Gwen.

Shaking the memory from her mind, she began to write a particularly long, descriptive e-mail to Touya. Even though he was downstairs, she didn't trust herself to speak with him just yet before her throat closing in around her throat and making her sound like a complete idiot.

Besides, writing out feelings were supposed to make you feel better, right?

Sakura didn't know what she was trying to accomplish, exactly. Writing to Touya about her problems... especially this particular one. Touya hated Syoaran's guts. Telling him about Syoaran's blatant... dumbassery would be like tossing a fish to a cat and wondering if the cat would eat it. He'd squash Syoaran like the pathetic insect he was. Not that Sakura, at this point, would really care.

He deserved it.

"Did he believe he could have us _both?_ Just thinking about it... ugh, how _wrong_!" Sakura yelled as she pressed her face into a pillow and gave out a strangled cry. She sent the email irritably to her brother and looked at the deck of cards on her desk. The one on the top was the Sealed Card. The young, pure angel embracing a heart smiled contently back at her.

This card was made from Syoaran and her relationship.

_I guess some things just weren't meant to happen._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Syoaran looked down at his hands. They were poised right above his keyboard, prepared to type. On the address bar above the text window was He was quite ready to write an extremely long, sentimental apology that would somehow make her loving him seem okay again. However, something made him hesitant. He was reluctant of actually doing it.

His head dropped and nearly smacked against the hard surface of his glass desk. Syoaran was in dire need of Advil. Tylenol, aspirin. Anything to aid the incessant pounding in his head. Sure, it was true that he and Gwen shared a certain history together, but so what? Sakura and him shared another, far more recent, important chemistry. Recent memories of Sakura's relationship with him began to slam into his skull. But so long as Gwen was still in Japan, he couldn't guarantee he could remain a hundred percent loyal to Sakura.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Gwen wanted him, just as much as she used to all those years ago. He wasn't bragging when he said this. As far as he was concerned, she hadn't been able to think of any boy other than him since he left. Her feelings were beyond obvious by now, and she definitely wasn't the type of person to let one girl get in the way of something she wanted.

Although he was for certain that Gwen was used to getting exactly what she desired, when she wanted it, and how. She was the wealthy heiress of a vast fortune, athletic, and brought new meaning to the word gorgeous. It was true she was a facile, garrulous spoiled brat now and then, but with her brains and essentially intelligence, there was no telling what sick plan she could easily cook up to stir things further for him.

That was Gwen, the epitome of self-confidence.

On the other hand, there was Kinomoto Sakura. It was hardly like Sakura _wasn't_ the prettiest girl in the class, because she most easily was. And it didn't even stop at her being pretty—she was beautiful in the most simple way possible. She didn't have to cake on layers of makeup like most girls. Point in fact, she didn't even touch a single stick or cream or powder in the morning excluding sunscreen and still ended up looking cuter and more attractive than everyone anyone had ever seen.

That was on the outside. Her looks were alone for boys to fall head over heels in love with her, but her perfection didn't stop at just that. She was one of the best athletes schools could hope for, and the coaches and teachers loved her for her competence in physical education and generally core school subjects. Indulgent, often introverted but had her fair share of social moments, Sakura was more than any person could ask for. Guys hit on her right in front of his face, what was to stop them from asking her out—and her saying _yes_—if they weren't together and out of each other's minds?

If he was out of _her_ mind?

The thought made him sick to his stomach, just the mere _thought._ It drove him crazy just thinking about it. Seeing Sakura in somebody else's embrace.

How had Sakura felt that day, seeing Gwen and him together? It may sound egotistical on his part, but it must've been more or less unbearable. He wouldn't have been able to handle seeing Sakura kissing another guy, much less do any of the other things that he'd been doing lately with Gwen. He'd rip his heart out and feed it to him first.

Sakura was modest, and diplomatically, she was extremely dense. She didn't read other peoples hints or catch their interested looks at all. Their attempts to get her attention were completely lost on her, although he could see through their cheesy attempts to court her easily.

Although, in hindsight, it must've been a good thing, how she never noticed. How she was so oblivious to the fact that so many people had—_have_—crushes on her.

Even his best friend, Yamasaki himself, had confessed to him long ago how he had feelings for the girl. It'd always been at the back of his mind, considering how Yamasaki was honest, smart, hilarious and actually quite good-looking. At the time he had still waved it off seeing that he knew Sakura would never even consider another guy when they had each other, but now…

What _about_ him would Sakura say 'no' to?

"Goodness. This is certainly is a splendid mess. Are you sure you don't want me to dig your grave?" Meiling asked cheerfully through the phone. Syoaran jolted a moment, before clicking the expensive electronic off of speaker phone and pressing it up against his ear with his neck. After all, Meiling knew both Gwen _and _Sakura. If anyone could give good advice, it'd be her.

"Don't I know it." Syoaran sighed as he closed the email without writing a single word, "Any thoughts?"

"Well," Syoaran heard the muffled shuffling of papers in the background. Was Meiling doing homework? "You know, Li, what's in the past… should stay in the past. I mean if you were single, this wouldn't be an issue. But you're not. And Sakura isn't just some random classmate so hot you decided to ask out. You've got history, one that couldn't possibly compare with Gwen's, no matter how cute she's gotten the past couple of years. My point is, with Gwen, you don't even _know_ her anymore."

"You're right about that." Syoaran said without a moment's hesitation. It was true that Gwen still shared the same interests and memories that he did, but there were things that were different about him. Heck, there were things that were different about _him._ But she seemed to be missing… her honesty, for one. Her friendliness—when it came to other people—would be another. "I just can't help but think- even if I do manage to make things right with Sakura, Gwen may do something to interfere. And I can't guarantee I won't appreciate it. If Sakura ends up watching again, this whole thing will just stay worse." Shaking his head, he slammed his fist into his head. "This is so juvenile. You'd think by now I'd be able to make my _own_ decisions."

"Jesus, Syoaran." Meiling said unhappily. "If you even have to _think_ about whether or not you want to stay with Sakura, one of the greatest people I have ever met, you really _don't_ deserve her."

"I didn't mean that. I—"

"Listen to me. Just stay with Sakura for now. It makes sense, the girl's your girlfriend. At least, so long as she still wants you. If you apologize to her and she blows you off, you're a free ball in Gwen's court. It may sound bastardly, but either way you get one of them. Only after you do, don't you dare think about changing your mind."

Syoaran blinked. "Bastardly? Damn, I _am_ a bastard. Why didn't I see this coming? I should've sent Gwen a letter or _something_ long ago saying it was over."

"You forgot about her?"

"No. She was always in the back of my mind." Syoaran massaged his aching temples with his thumbs. "What'll I do, Meiling? I want Sakura, but Gwen's just going to find some way to weasel her way between us again." Taking the phone off of his shoulder since his neck was starting to kill him, he drummed his fingers lightly on his table. "Meiling, this may sound _completely_ unrealistic, but—"

"Let me guess," Meiling interrupted, "you want me to fly to Tokyo."

There was a pause from Syoaran's end of the line. "How'd you know?"

"I haven't known you all my life for nothing. I'll come. If Renato books the tickets now in my name, I should get there by midnight." There was another short pause. "And speak of the devil. Sakura's calling on the other line, so I'm going to drop you to talk to _her_ before I start packing."

Syoaran smiled, feeling somewhat relieved that Meiling was so willing to ship herself over to Japan for his sake. "Thanks, Meiling. I owe you one. Good night." He hung up the phone, before looking back at the icons on his wallpaper. He clicked on Internet Explorer and was about to tr composing an email again when he stopped and closed it again. What was the point? What was Meiling going to talk to Sakura about? Was she going to tell her that he was sorry? Or put every detail into the fact that he might actually go back to Gwen like a wounded puppy?

Shaking his head, Syoaran just pressed a hand against his pounding forehead. At this point, he just wanted to keel over and die. Merely melt into a puddle onto the ground. He really couldn't care less. Meiling was coming to stay at his house, of course, as she always did when she visited, so he'd need to get Greg to prepare one of the guestrooms for her.

Sakura trusted Meiling. She trusted Syoaran, too. At least, she had.

He did kiss Gwen back in the park. They did embrace. And he did feel a spark between the two of them ignite. Sakura-- how hurt did she feel? How betrayed? He wanted to visit her. Lifting himself up from his chair, he looked out of his window.

_Sakura's house isn't too far from here. I'll walk._

.-.-.-.-.-.-

The atmosphere.

The setting. The gentle lighting. The _audience._

In her dimly-lit, gothic-themed bedroom, spread out unperturbed on her spacious twin-sized bed—which was actually quite large compared to the sticklike average figure of a Japanese girl—Gwen lay stomach-down on her bedspread, swinging her legs in midair as she finished yet another entry in her diary, replaying the memory of the park in her head for the thirtieth time that day. It was entirely perfect. There had not been a single flaw in the happenings of that particular event, and hopefully none in any more to come.

Laughing, she rolled over on her black satin sheets before giving a giddily excited squeal of content at the thought, relishing the idea of seeing Sakura Kinomoto crushed like a bug beneath her foot. It was so glaringly obvious that she were the one that Syoaran cared for. She had no doubts that he was at home, mulling his options over.

Although at this point, she wouldn't be surprised if he chose Sakura. In fact, she nearly expected it. But it didn't matter—because every time he closed his eyes, or kissed Sakura, or even looked at anything remotely related or even of no correlation to Gwen, he'd think about her. And his heart would see that soon enough. She almost guaranteed it. Except this time, there would be no _abrupt move._ He wasn't goin to go anywhere. And neither was he.

Just recently, Gwen had called Syoaran's mother—who acted like a godmother to her—to update her, as promised, on how she and her son had been doing. What _had_ come to a surprise to her, however, was this new knowledge that Meiling would be arriving to Tokyo later on tonight. How perfect! So Syoaran had gone to _her_ for help. No matter, soon she would be able to see for herself how much more perfect a match she was with Syoaran than that dreaded Sakura.

Sitting up, she got to her feet and looked into the mirror. A pair of exotically-rimmed eyes stared back at her, the same glittery and shining grey in color that her mothers' had. Accompanying those gorgeous irises was a blemish-free oval face, and attached to that was a long and slender, perfectly proportioned body.

Normal people would have to squint or sit until their eyes adjusted to be able to see in the darkness of her room, but she was used to it enough. Making her way to her closet, she pulled it open and looked thoughtfully at the large array of clothes she had as a wardrobe. Sakura's was nowhere near _this_ large, to be sure.

Decisively taking out a seductive red blouse and short, white skirt that was sure to accentuate all the right curves, Gwen set them on her bed. Well, she _figured_ they were curve-hugging and sexy. At least, the groups of boys she'd passed at the theater on movie night with the girls last weekend certainly thought so. But Hong Kong boys were so much more _different_ than Japanese ones.

Then again, she was trying to impress Syoaran here. She knew his tastes inside and out. He always was a sucker for red.

Meiling's arrival to Tokyo gave her the perfect excuse to see Syoaran that night—and imprint her image into his mind for the rest of the night. After slipping on the clothes and accessories she'd circumspectly chosen, she went down to the foyer to choose a pair of shoes to match.

_Looks just about right. It's time to pay Syoaran a little visit._

_And if one Sakura Kinomoto gets hurt in the process, that's none of my fault, is it?_

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Feeling strangely out of breath for a member of the male Top 10 physical education course, Syoaran closed one clammy hand in a fist and rapped incessantly on Sakura's door, feeling the built-up stress compounding inside of him per second. He was slightly taken aback to see Touya answer the door, when it was Sakura he'd imagine opening it and possibly slamming it in his face. Touya always did take the role of Sakura's guardian, however—why _didn't_ he expect him greeting him? Or, as much of a greeting, "What do you want?" was.

"I've… I need to see her." Syoaran said determinedly, forcing himself to at least appear unfazed by Touya's intimidating facial expression.

"No."

Syoaran's left eye twitched involuntarily. Touya never had liked him, but he'd never gotten in the way and refused a request for him to see his sister before. Why not? Especially when it was so urgent. Closing his eyes, Syoaran took in a deep breath. "Listen, I know stuff's happened, and I don't know what she's told you—but I need to talk to her. I love her, and you know it."

Suddenly a scoffing snarl—or maybe half-smile—spread across Touya's surprisingly pretty visage. "Heh. Yeah, well, looks like the feeling certainly isn't mutual, buddy." Touya leaned against the door, blocking his way should he try to shove his way through. "If you hurt her anymore, I'm going to knock your freaking lights out. With or without your bullshit powers."

Syoaran flinched, before angrily stuffing his hands in his pockets, feeling his neck heat up from beneath his collar. "Look, I'm not twelve anymore. Quit acting like I can't take care of my girlfriend."

Okay, so maybe not the best statement in the world.

Touya raised an eyebrow and allowed another surprised smile, his head moving backwards a bit, as if taken by surprise. "'I'm not twelve anymore?' Judging by the way you treat your girlfriend like shit, I'd suspect you were two. Making out with some random chick from China you knew way back when and having my sister _witness_ it is possibly _the_ most mature thing I've heard of in months." The hatred in his tone was extremely apparent, especially tonight. Even Syoaran felt shrunk down in size, something he'd never faced admitting before.

Touya seemed to imply that Sakura was upset. So was she crying, or wasn't she? She was a terrifyingly strong girl, she would never start bawling in front of her brother. All he wanted to do was apologize to her for all of this mess and clear up this misunderstanding, but this big oaf wouldn't let him.

His body felt a bit numb, but all he could think of was how angry he was at Touya's insensitivity, despite the display of his own earlier on that day.

"To hell with you. I don't care about what you think, and I came here to see her so I can apologize, so fuck what you think." Syoaran hardened his tone and glared back at Sakura's brother with a scowl that gave even Touya's a run for his money.

Without another word, Touya shifted out of the way of the doorway.

Then promptly slammed the door right in Syoaran's face.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sakura's entire body took a violent jolt when her cellular phone unexpectedly started ringing its familiar tune from the cabinet beside her. Lifting her head groggily from the pillow, her right, delicate hand lifted to pick it up, but only succeeded in miscalculating where it lay and knocking it clean off of her table and onto the ground.

Forced with no other option than to get up, she reached over with a manly grunt and swooped the phone up before answering it absently. "Kinomoto Sakura?"

"_Saku! It's me, Meiling."_

Suddenly a burst of energy shot through Sakura, and her eyes were able to open fully as she got up and began to run her fingers through her hair as she looked across the room at the full-length mirror to make it less of a nightmare. "Oh! Hey! Where are you calling from?"

"_Sorry to call so late. I'm at Tokyo airport right now. I arrived fifteen minutes ago and got my luggage and all that. If I take a taxi from here to Murasaki Plaza, it'll take about twenty minutes. That includes the time it takes me to walk to Syoaran's house from there."_

"Yeah, okay," Sakura said, her smile brightening as she began to hobble around for clothes suitable for casual walking purposes. "I'll see you there in twenty, then."

"_You got it. I don't think he's expecting you, though. It'd be like—a pleasant surprise for him. I know he's been worried about you."_

"It shows," Sakura replied sarcastically before picking up her cards and putting them into her back pocket. "Okay! Talk to you soon."

"_Ciao."_

Hanging up her phone with one hand, she tossed her cell phone into her bag along with the Sakura cards and her wallet. So she was going to see Meiling tonight, and she and Syoaran would have the opportunity to talk.

_This is so perfect something's bound to go wrong,_ she thought bitterly as she looked around for her exit strategy.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In dull and dampened spirits, Syoaran arrived back at his mansion a lousy fifteen minutes later, a major time difference from the five minutes it took him to sprint to Sakura's house. He was about to turn in when he saw Gwen come down from his driveway, waving.

_Oh, dear God. Must I tell her now?_ Syoaran shook his head. _Please tell me I don't have to do this tonight._

"Giu-" he began, when Gwen reached out and jumped him with a hug. "Hey, you! Where were you? Thomas told me you went out in a mad hurry. I was almost afraid you'd be trying to reach me at my house when I came to _yours!"_

Syoaran was relieved he didn't have to tell her about his whereabouts because as if on cue a taxi pulled up and Meiling jumped out with a single bag of luggage. "Syoaran! Gwen!" Meiling called out, and she caught sight of the two of them in their embrace and rolled her eyes to herself. "Not interrupting anything, I hope. Where's Sakura?"

"Sakura? You mean she's supposed to come here?" Syoaran inquired, when Gwen spotted the wretched third party of their relationship coming down the sidewalk wearing ridiculously form-fitting clothes that _almost_ looked gorgeous. Almost. Gwen would rather die than admit it.

"I'm really unsure about Miss Kinomoto, but Meiling! It's so nice to see you again." Gwen smiled. "It's great that you're here. Let me guess, Syoaran already told you we're getting back together again? It's just like old times, isn't it?" An evil smile spread on her lips, and she gave Syoaran a quick kiss before hugging Meiling. "It's been ages. You've gotten _so_ pretty."

Sakura, who had been coming down the roadway, stopped in her tracks. Okay, so Meiling had failed to tell her that _Gwen_ would be there tonight. Did she have to handle this? On top of that—Syoaran's kiss count had been on the rise as of late. How many more of those from that horrendous girl did she have to witness? Watching the three of them converse made Sakura tense up. This was _their_ childhood over again. She had no place in their happy little trio.

Suddenly, a flash of doubt and horror sunk in.

"_Sakura, I'm sorry."_

That _e-mail._

Sorry for what, exactly? New doubts invaded her. Was he sorry for kissing Gwen? Or sorry that they couldn't hold up a relationship? She held her head. "I'm so sorry, Meiling." Sakura whispered. "I'll see you tomorrow." Turning, she began to run back towards her house. She had snuck out of her window, and had hoped Touya wouldn't have found out.

Meiling wrestled free from Gwen's death hug just in time to see Sakura's retreating back. Fear flooded her.

_She saw,_ she thought miserably. _She saw that kiss._


	3. Complicated

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

Chapter Three

Grateful to her years of being on the track-and-field team, Sakura managed to gracefully leap over the fence before quickly scaling the bricks of her wall and swinging her slim, lightly tanned legs over the windowsill into the safety of her room. In Japan, a girl being tan was unfashionable, since men seemed to like their paleness, but since she spent most of her day in the sun her skin would have to be abnormal not to tan.

Then again, she had better tings to worry about than boys and their stupid thoughts right now.

Dropping back onto her without saying a word, her chest heaved silently and her breath shook, but she resisted the urge to cry. She had done enough of that today, and she was sick of lying on this bed and brooding over her problems.

_My God._

Sakura felt her fists clench against her pillow, and slowly fury and rage took over her feelings of loss and heartbreak. Hurt tears were replaced by angry ones, and she felt the pillow grow heavy in her hands.

_What the hell was __**wrong**__ with those people? _

No one could tell her this was just about one silly little kiss anymore. Although in hindsight, sure, some people have experienced worse and may say she's still just overreacting and acting like a total girl—

--But this was real. She wasn't some jaded fool thinking her love life was the most important and significant one in the history of relationships, but she knew for absolutely certain that she had thought her relationship was for real.

This _wasn't_ about one silly little kiss.

There was something new that Gwen brought to the table. Something that sparked a certain something within Syoaran that just made the two of them be together—and _want_ to be together. And look perfect that way.

"Why?" She whispered, trying to keep the emotion from her voice as she thumped her fist continuously on the wall until all feeling left it. "Why not just break up with me? Did you think you could have us both?"

Suddenly, her open window brought in a surprisingly cold breeze, sending chills down her spine but sending a refreshing touch of cold to her face. Suddenly, she felt alone and naïve—but strong. All of a sudden, she couldn't care about those people. That's right, she didn't care. She didn't give two damns if Syoaran made love to Gwen on a lamppost, or if the two of them from blew up from spontaneous human combustion. She'd never have the same respect for Syoaran again. This was for absolute certain.

Whatever faith, trust, reliance and respect she once had for the boy had quickly diminished once she felt this new confidence brought on by a simple spring breeze. May it be love, friendship, or any other platonic relationship—none of that would ever exist between Syoaran and herself again. Because Syoaran Li clearly couldn't be trusted. And if there wasn't trust in a relationship, what left was there?

"I should've listened to Touya's advice years ago." Syoaran murmured, that same, dizzying headache that had been plaguing her these past hours miraculously beginning to subside. Dimming her lights, she fell back against her bed, feeling slightly feverish. N more regrets. "I'd rather not have a relationship at all than have one that'd end this bad..."

_If only I knew before that our relationship was as stable as a stack of cards..._

"Chin up. End the relationship as if it _didn't_ mean the end of the world..."

Syoaran... that fucking bastard.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"What a fucking bastard." Touya muttered, a wave of anger washing over him. "I'm going to kick that runt's sorry ass to the curb." He was somewhat relieved that her father had been sent on a business trip to Beijing. If he were around, Sakura would have had even more of a reason to strain herself to act her usual—bright and cheerful. Which was impossible considering what she was going through at the moment.

He'd been somewhat avoiding her since, to keep her from hiding her real thoughts under a false, happy mask. He wasn't sure what to do, exactly. Sakura was sure not to confide in him, and he didn't want to force her to act all bubbly. So all that left was for him to keep his distance. Unfortunately enough, that did nothing to imply that he was there for her, which he was.

He looked down at his watch. Eleven forty-five. He heard the rustling of the wind outside, and sighed.

He wasn't stupid. He had known that Sakura had snuck out. Some time after she left, Meiling had called him, confirming it. When she had found out what Sakura had already told him, Touya as very much tempted to punch a hole in the kid's face.

_That little punk,_ Touya thought, eagerly eying that square piece of wall with his fist's name written on it. _I'll get you for doing this._

Yukito, who had been doing an abroad program in Paris, had been updated on Touya's daily life since the day he left. The two of them spent at least three hours a day on the phone, which put a significant dent in Touya's income, despite his multiple jobs.

"_So you're not doing anything?"_

"I'm not you, Yuki. If you were here, she'd talk to you. I'm her brother. That's against the rules." Touya protested angrily. "What a smartass. I hope that little bastard burns in hell."

"_Maybe…"_ Yukito replied quietly.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Oh God... I'm such a fucking _bastard_." Syoaran's head dropped droopily over the ledge of his couch, and it just hovered while his hair flew back and out of his eyes. "I don't even understand this situation anymore. I told you that this would happen."

Meiling looked disturbed. _You jackass. What are __**you**__ feeling so fucked about?_ She cursed toward Syoaran angrily. _How could you just sit there when Sakura is probably crying back at home? If she can sneak out, you can most definitely sneak in. How could you let this happen? You don't see __**her**__ making out with God-knows-who. Oh, fuck you._

The two of them together knew that Sakura had about fifty more than normal admirers that were all-too itching to have the two of them split up. Syoaran knew that best of the two of them- so why was he doing this?

"You let her kiss you. That was your own fault." Meiling confirmed for him, her voice sounding dead. She had to refrain to hold back a tone of bitterness. "What're _you_ so confused about? You claimed to be Saku's boyfriend, yet you let that girl kiss you. The main is, if you're going to keep doing this-- do Saku-chan a favor and break up with her. I'm warning you. She's been hurt enough by you already."

Syoaran covered his face with his hands. "I know, you told me." He muttered miserably. "But, believe me when I say I do like Sakura. Really, I do. Believe it or not. Except if I do get back with Sakura, it won't be the rosy future it would've been.. Pre-Gwen. She'll do all sorts of things, not like she hasn't already. Sakura will just turn out hting me even more."

"Then stop being so selfish and think about Sakura's feelings. Sometimes saving someone from hurt means hurting yourself. But that's in the worst case scenario. I still think you should try blowing Gwen off. If you can't do it, stick with her."

"But how am I supposed to know if Sakura's the one?" Syoaran protested. Meiling stared at him, dumbfounded.

"If that was a question you really had to ask, then you really _don't_ deserve her." Meiling said, getting up. Syoaran got to his feet and grabbed onto Meiling's wrist desperately to keep her from leaving.

"That's not what I meant. What if she hates my guts right now? I know her brother certainly does, and we never really were peachy-keen to begin with. He practically yelled me out the door when I tried to apologize before you arrived. What do they expect me to do? I don't know what they're _thinking."_

Meiling raised her hands in innocence. "Hey! You know my poker face. I'm _not_ playing decoy. I'm always decoy." She pouted. "I _hate_ being decoy."

"As I recall, you kick ass at poker."

"That's irrelevant."

Syoaran stared at her. Meiling stared competitively back.

After about five minute later, Meiling sighed, exasperated. "Fine! I'll do it. God, save me."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Gwen entered her mansion that night with the biggest, most smug smile she'd pulled off in ages. After the scene with Syoaran and Meiling—and well, her—the reunion made her confident that Sakura may just as well hate Syoaran by now. She practically had Syoaran wrapped around her little finger.

Just like it should've been long ago.

Sitting atop her bed with a flourish, she felt a surge of triumph as she eyed the couch. If Sakura broke up with _him_ first, then Syoaran would have close to 0 chances of getting her back. That would assure her position with him in the future.

Just as things should be.

"Trust me, Sakura, you're better off without him." She murmured, taking out a photo that Sakura and Syoaran had taken together. She took it out of Syoaran's wallet from his jacket pocket when he had lent it to her this one time. Admittedly, a trace of anger _had_ been shown, but she had thought better than to actually get mad. After all, the two of _them _didn't have a recent picture to put in! This must be remedied in the future.

Of course, she returned the coat and its contents, excluding the picture that she had in her hands. Putting her other hand delicately on its carefully-taken care of edges, she ripped the photo monstrously in two, a jagged line separating Sakura and Syoaran- which gave Gwen a sadistic form of pleasure.

_You won't run away from me again, Li. You came to Tokyo, and I chased you here to play your game. I don't care what it takes. I'd chase you to the ends of the Earth. I didn't come crawling back to the hospitality of my father for no reason._

She looked down at the picture. "You bitch," she said soundly, tearing up the half picture of Sakura Kinomoto. "You are never going to love Syoaran again. I'll make sure the two of you never get back together. No drop of friendship, no drop of love- none of it will remain. You just wait and see."

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-**

There was something different about her that day.

When Sakura entered the classroom that morning, she came in without a moment's hesitation and immediately, almost eagerly, began talking to Tomoyo about future movie plans. Sakura also looked surprisingly, _particularly_ good today, despite a night that potentially could have been in tears.

Meiling placed her face in the palm of her left hand which she used to prop up her chin. Okay, so Sakura didn't even say 'good morning' to her like she normally would have. Was she angry because she didn't separate Syoaran and Gwen? That wasn't fair. _She_ ran away. She could've ended the conflict herself then and there!

Syoaran was the next to enter the classroom. He waved in a friendly manner toward Meiling. Without a chance to raise her hand to return the favor, Gwen leapt up from God-knows-where and jumped at Syoaran's back. "Sho-chan, _good morning_!" She called out in a chipper, childish voice that Meiling figured was intended to be cute. "Did you miss me? I had the _greatest_ time last night. Catching up, and all that. Reminds me of old times! Meiling-chan should visit more often!"

The smile was grating on Tomoyo's nerves. Closing her eyes, she turned to face Sakura, her hands on her hips. "Honestly! What does Syoaran see in that wretched girl?" She asked angrily. "Think about it. Unlike you, Gwen has absolutely nothing between the surface."

"Are you girls talking about Gwen?" Yamasaki asked, coming up behind them. "Gwen's very pretty, there's no doubt about that. But, she's nothing compared to—" he began, when he barely dodged a chair that Tomoyo had artfully chucked at him.

Pulling him out of earshot, she began shaking him by the collar. "Are you stupid?" She whispered coldly at him. "Can't you see that Sakura's upset? Just look at what Syoaran's doing to her! If you're his friend, go to him and tell him to break up with Sakura, preferably before he makes Gwen his new honey!"

Yamasaki looked over at Sakura, who was eying the ground. "Actually, she doesn't look upset at all."

Sakura got up from her desk and gently made her way over, checking twice to make sure she wasn't interrupting something important the two of them were discussing. "Tomo-chan," she asked quietly, looking a bit sad. "Would you mind getting Meiling's attention for me? I'm… I don't want to go over there."

Tomoyo rewarded Sakura's attempt at being the slightest bit happy with a smile. "Of course I can. You're not feeling unwell, are you? No headaches? Holding things in aren't good for a girl's body."

"I feel fine." Sakura assured her, and Tomoyo gave a curt nod before walking over to the table. Not even bothering to force a smile of her own, Tomoyo placed a hand on the table and leaned forward. "Good morning." She said, a bit too angrily. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Sakura would like to talk to you for a bit."

"To who?" Syoaran asked, just a bit too eagerly. _If it's me, please let it be good news._ He begged, not knowing exactly who his mental prayer was sent to.

"Meiling." Tomoyo replied, sparing absolutely none of his feelings. "But _I _would like to talk to you, Li, if it isn't too much trouble."

"_Hey_!" Gwen's baritone rang out, as she reached out and clung to Syoaran's arm before he had the chance to get up. "Just what do you think you're doing? You cannot just barge into our conversation and take my company away!" She glared at her, with a pout that made Tomoyo want to bash her head in. Of course, Gwen made everything about _her._

_Like I could let Sakura's best friend talk to Syoaran. That'd be like giving him away all wrapped up in ribbons and decorative paper._ _I'd kill myself first._


	4. Hopes

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Chapter Four

"Right. Li-kun?" Tomoyo repeated, looking Syoaran directly in the eyes expectantly. "It'll just take a moment. How much could I have to say?"

"I—" Syoaran hesitated for a moment, like a deer caught in headlights. Good, let him sweat. He scooted his chair back and began to get up. "I'll be back. I just need to talk to Tomo-chan for a minute or two, okay?" He could've sworn he saw her eyebrow twitch when he called Tomoyo by her nickname. What was wrong with her? Did she expect him to disassociate with _every_ girl in his class?

Gwen just sat back in her chair, raising her hands parallel to her face before crossing them over her chest and shooting him an accusing look. Despite the huffy look on her face that just begged him to rush over and comfort her, Syoaran turned and willingly followed Tomoyo out of the din of the classroom. Shutting the pandemonium behind the door, Tomoyo turned around to face Syoaran, all of a sudden looking beyond furious. He'd never seen the cool-headed Tomoyo in such a state.

"You hurt Sakura for _that?"_ She inquired in disbelief, trying her best to shut the anger out of her voice and expression, her violet eyes flashing subconsciously. "I cannot understand you, Li-kun. I'd never even _imagine_ you'd fall in love with someone so patronizing and manipulative, much less choose her over Sakura! Or do you prefer your women to be those clingy, possessive types, who refuse to give you even your own breathing space?" She paused for a moment, as if giving him the opportunity to speak up and explain himself. When no such thing came, she plowed angrily on.

"In all honesty, I don't mean to be mean-spirited, Li. I've tried in every such way to try to look at this situation from different perspectives to try to make any possible sense of what you and Gwen could possibly be thinking by getting together and simultaneously torturing Sakura. No new point of view comes to mind when I look at the two of you. Gwen doesn't trust you around other girls—that much is obvious." Her eyes narrowed, if even just by the tiniest bit. "Not that you _should_ be trusted, by the way you treat Sakura the way you do." She waved a hand in front of him in a wild, sweeping gesture. "How is it humanly possible for you to make such a bad decision, Li? Has Gwen fogged up _all_ your senses?"

"Daijouji-san." Syoaran interjected confidently, as calmly as he could maintain his voice. "You are one of the most intelligent and fair people I know. From my perspective, you should understand what I'm thinking of, in respect of all you just said to me, when I say that your opinion is biased. You're her best friend."

"Biased!" At his comment, Tomoyo's mouth dropped open in an indiscreet gasp. "Li-kun, have you gone _mad?_" She shook her head, feeling like nothing could penetrate Syoaran's stubborn hide. "It's true Sakura's my best friend, but she's your friend too. Or did you forget that as well?

Syoaran's heart fell, and his eyes seemed to faze out. He needed to grab the wall to keep hi balance as the words hit him. Considering Sakura not as a girlfriend, but a _friend?_ For God's sake, she _was_ a friend. If someone else had done this to her, he'd have kicked his ass.

"All I know is, by the way you look at it, it just seems that Sakura's side is worse than my own." Syoaran began in a thinly veiled attempt to defend himself, despite not having any points to make everything seem alright.

"That jut goes without saying, doesn't it?" Tomoyo snapped impatiently, trying her best to keep her voice calm which resulted in her sounding as if she were talking to some retarded fool. "Exactly what wrong has Sakura committed towards you? Not a single one comes to mind. You're having the time of your life with that girl, while Sakura's the one shouldering the suffering in both your lives. That's why you're scum, and she's not."

Syoaran opened his mouth to speak, but no words formed. For all he knew and thought, Tomoyo was right. What _was_ he expected to say in his defense? Sakura _didn't_ do a single thing, in all their years together, wrong against him and here he was cheating on her.

"Listen, I love Sakura. Despite what you may be thinking right now, about me and about us, despite my own actions—trust me when I say I do." Syoaran slid down the wall until he was squatting, and pulled his arms over his head.

Tomoyo's expression relaxed, as she knelt down in front of him, and used her right hand to lift his chin until she could look directly into his big, brown eyes. Allowing the smallest of forgiving smiles, she stroked his jaw with her thumb.

"Break up with her." She said with that same, friendly, calm look. Then she withdrew her hand. "At this point, I'm not even asking you anymore. I'm telling you: Break up with Sakura." Syoaran lifted his head in surprise, and she dropped her smile. "For the past week you've been pushing your luck and testing the limits of Sakura's good will—not to mention all the while annoying the hell out of me. You want an unbiased opinion? Go talk to Meiling. She'll give you a fine dose of reality in telling you off in her own diplomatic way."

She stood up, and began to walk back to the classroom. But just as she touched the door handle, she looked back to him, her eyes looking distant and somewhat teary. "As much as I'd like her to right now, Sakura doesn't hate you. She can pretend and she can try to smile all her troubles away all she wants to try and fool me and the rest of us, but I can sense the hurt in her voice. She's delicate, but she's strong. You should know that better than anyone—so quit trying to break her."

Closing her eyes, she released a breath she didn't even know she was holding. Opening the sliding door, Tomoyo entered the classroom and promptly slammed it shut behind her. Once Syoaran returned to the classroom after a breather or two, he found Tomoyo talking to Meiling and Sakura. Sakura seemed… almost cheerful. As if everything hadn't gone to hell these past couple of days. All of a sudden, the room seemed empty, as if everyone were someplace far, far away.

He missed Sakura.

He wanted to be the one who put that smile on her face. He wanted to be able to walk over there, sit down beside her, and join in on the conversation like he would've been able to last week, or the week before. He hadn't hugged her even once since this whole misunderstanding had begun. Perhaps this was the opportune moment to sort things out—

"Li-_kun!"_ Gwen called out, jumping up from her desk as she saw him enter the room, deliberately catching the attention of all the people at Sakura's table who turned to stare at the source of the abrupt, high-pitched squawk. His eyes darted to meet Sakura's helplessly, and he felt all hope disappear when he saw her raise an eyebrow accusingly at him, an unreadable look on her face.

Then she was gone.

She resumed talking to Meiling, turning away from him completely, in a span of two seconds the group of them burst out in laughter.

Syoaran sighed. To him, it was extremely obvious that Sakura disliked him, perhaps even despised him. What was Tomoyo talking about when he said she didn't? Sakura clearly didn't trust him, which was equally as bad. His hand clutched the doorknob as Gwen neared him, a pretty but unbelievably fake smile plastered on her face. He suddenly felt a hunch that Gwen was going to hug him again, and looked briefly in her direction in horror that she was in that exact pose to do exactly as he feared. Her arms were stretched out and she gave a little jump for extra strangling power.

Before she could reach him, however, Syoaran quickly slammed the door between him and her and skittered off with the pitiful excuse of taking temporary leave for the bathroom. He heard the door rattle as she rammed into the classroom door, but somehow couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for or even stick around for her temporary humiliation.

Once he reached the unhygienic school washroom, he looked at his reflection in the fingerprint-smeared mirror. Looking all but healthy, he looked exhausted and worn out—which all in all wasn't too far off from how he was feeling. Splashing some cold water against hi face, Syoaran groaned like a man with a hangover a reality dawned on him. Lots of guys would die for the chance to date Sakura. She wasn't _just_ cute, she had one of the highest averages, a healthy athletic build—and above all else, she had a great personality nobody could refuse.

She was open about many different points of view, and made everyone feel welcome and close. All Gwen was a face, a brain, and a body. Her personality was as warming as a popsicle, and her closed-mindedness admittedly grated on even his own nerves sometimes.

"I can't let this go on forever," he muttered to himself as he exited the school, wondering exactly where to go. "Or else I'll regret it. I need to make my choice."

He just prayed it was the right one.

-.-.-.-.-.—

Sakura looked up at the clock to the far right of the classroom. She'd been acting happy for five periods now, and there was only two minutes more until the bell rang for them to be dismissed. Her face ached from smiling so much, and it had not escaped her attention that Syoaran hadn't returned to school after "going to the washroom" for over twenty minutes.

It was petty, he knew, but she couldn't help but be amused over the shade of red that Gwen had become when Syoaran had so obviously shut the door to block her embrace. She looked around, feeling oddly alone. Tomoyo had gone off to take the attendance to the office, and Meiling had been pulled off to the side by Yamasaki to discuss something or other. Despite being stranded, she was relieved that she had no need to smile so much when there was no one there to see her do it.

"See? She's alone. Why don't you just go over there and talk to her, if you like her so much? Aren't you a man?" Meiling asked from the other side of the classroom, looking in Sakura's direction. He made a strange face, as if he had just tasted something sour. "I said she was hot, but that doesn't make her any less scary."

"Scary? Sakura's not scary."

"Not her, I meant Gwen." Yamasaki felt a slow blush creep across his face. It was a color change that could've given tomatoes a run for their money.

"Ah, I remember you calling her attractive." Meiling said with a coy smile, "So what's this? You like Gwen now, or what?"

Suddenly, the two of them watched Sakura's head bang against the table, and they quickly hurried back to see what the matter was.

Feeling tired to an absurd degree, she had

To her utmost relief, the bell rang at that moment, which gave her the wonderful chance to excuse herself to go home. Picking up the last of her binders and sliding them into her bag, she waved her friends goodbye before she went for the door to get her rollerblades. To her disdain, Gwen stopped her by standing directly in front of the door, her eyes baring into her like icicles. "I'm warning you, Kinomoto. Stay _away_from Li. He wasn't meant for you—I don't want you to speak to him, even at all."

Suddenly Sakura tensed up completely. She had just spent the entire day parading around as if nothing had gone wrong. She had just spent the past week crying herself to sleep and not doing anything about the source of her trauma. Now all she wanted was to go home and rest, and this condescending brat was getting up in her face. Again.

"Get out of my way. You don't think you can get your precious loverboy back without threatening _me_ about him, first?" Sakura demanded, matter-of-factly as she stared Gwen up and down. "What's the matter, princess? Can't get him on your own!"

"Shut up!" Gwen snapped, and opened her mouth to speak when Sakura did her best to collide into her shoulder to get her out of the way. Succeeding, she was glad to made it to the hallway so that she could leave for the locker bay without needing to plow Gwen out of the way. "God, even looking at you aggravates me."

Looking as infuriated as she felt, Gwen felt a sudden urge to take a shotgun and hunt Sakura Kinomoto down with it. She debated rushing after her and regaining at least part of her trampled on dignity by saying something witty, when Meiling stepped in front of Gwen and essentially blocking her way out.

"Gwen," she said bluntly after double-checking with a brief glance to see if the room had been emptied of any other loitering students. "I need to talk to you. Now would be best."

Gwen's facial expression went from sour to sarcastic disbelief. "Meiling, who do you think you are, ordering me around like that?" She snapped. "I have absolutely no obligation to listen to you, and I'm not going anywhere I don't want to go. So if you don't have anything else to say, go away! I need to find Syoaran and get him away from that horrid girl."

Meiling flinched, when she raised a fist and punched Gwen square in the jaw. With the impact, Gwen toppled over backwards before stumbling over a chair and falling hard against the dirty floor with a startled yelp. "Meiling!" She screeched. "What was _that_ for? Oh… my face!"

"Screw you and your pathetic mind games!" Meiling glared hard, her eyes as narrowed as she could possibly make them. "You're not fooling anyone. Syoaran, least of all. It's about time you took your nose out of the air and looked down upon reality. Syoaran's feelings towards Sakura are far beyond obvious—those feelings are genuine. Sakura's the only one who's been courteous enough to not counter your stupid tricks, and I think she's crazy for it."

"Shut up!" Gwen shouted, getting to her feet. "You still have that jealousy problem. Well, I couldn't care less. I suggest you find something better to do with your time than antagonize me!"

Meiling stretched her fingers. Then she punched her again. This time twice as hard on the area right above her previous blow. She was surprised that Gwen's teeth weren't knocked loose. "Get over yourself, you conniving bitch!" She yelled coldly. "I am not jealous of anybody. Keep watching and you'll see for yourself that Syoaran really does love Sakura and no one else. Either way, it shows. You're just the only one who can't seem to notice that. You can't change destiny, and those two have been through more than you and him can ever build!"

"Would you like to explain, then, why their relationship started crumbling when I came into the show?" Gwen yelled back, furious. "I am not self-obsessed. I thought we were friends, Meiling. How could you betray me?"

"You are betraying Syoaran." Meiling countered. "You're making him think you're still that same, innocent girl from the past. You're trying to deceive him by thinking he doesn't love Sakura, which is failing, mind you. And you're a selfish stuck-up bitch in reality. Add ignorant to the pile. I know a lot of people here who want you back where you came from. And I've only been here for a couple of days, Gwen."

"You're lying. Nobody would want me to go back. I'm smart, I'm gorgeous, I'm athletic-- I'm perfect!"

Meiling flinched again.

Then she punched her once more, just for the hell of it.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

_I cannot believe she had the nerve to try and pull that with me,_ Sakura thought angrily, as she made her way towards her house. She stopped when she saw Syoaran sitting atop the slide of Penguin Park. Sakura flicked her eyes back down onto the path in front of her as she continued to walk. Who was he waiting for? Her?

She looked around, just to make sure his precious Gwen wasn't there. After all, she knew nothing of Syoaran's intentions.

Syoaran seemed to spot her in a millisecond. "Sakura." In a flash he as off the slide and had embraced her in a tight, longing hug. Too shocked to return the favor, Sakura just stood still, paralyzed. She didn't know what to feel. Happy? Triumphant? Angry? Did Syoaran think he could do this to her without having her mind even the slightest bit?

"Sakura, I'm so sorry," Syoaran said ever so gently, pulling her back. "I really am. I'm so sorry that I couldn't have come to this conclusion earlier. All I've ever wanted was right in front of me, and I couldn't realize it. Everything was so hectic, and I-"

Memories flashed back, and Sakura felt... angry. Because those were the feeling sthat were currently taking over her body. She looked up furiously at his face to scold and scream, when immediately all senses relevant to being enraged melted away.

He was crying.


	5. I CANT WRITE

Im so sorry OO

I have writer's block

. cant think of any ideas at the moment

check later Oo

I might… get… something in my head 


	6. Revealing True Colors

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-

Koneko notes: thanks a bunch, readers. Writer's block, not so bad. Someone's given me some ideas in their reviews, so I thought I'd faintly go along with it. Feedback is good, after all. Read it, if it's crap, say so. Oh, and is the spelling 'Syaoran?' I saw it in another review. Well, I'm too used to typing Syoaran, so you'll have to put up with me and my bad romanji. Sorry.

**Chapter Four**

What, was this some sort of sick joke?

She felt as if this scene was being played out just for her, as if this was Sakura's intended way of telling Gwen that she'd won. Frozen in her tracks, she could just feel the color rising to her cheeks as she looked away, mortified.

Hoping the loud pounding in her heart couldn't be heard or possibly detected through her shirt, Gwen covered her mouth by the palm of her hand to stifle her hyperventilating.

What did Syoaran think he was doing? Back with _her_, no less!

Back in the classroom, Meiling had given her this "advice" which Gwen had absolutely refused to even think about. Now, it rang through her head like church bells on a windy day. It had been hard enough to shut out Meiling's words, but now they just came back to bite her in the ass. Feeling weak, she fell limply to her knees with one hand on the trunk of a cherry tree.

"I don't believe this," she whispered as she bit her lip violently to keep herself from crying, "I can't believe you'd do this to me."

She had seen the entire scene perfectly. The main route that led to both their houses passed through this park, and after her encounter with Meiling Gwen felt forlorn and distressed. There was an absolute need for her to run to Syoaran for consoling and once again solidifying their relationship's renewed status when she had quickly shifted behind a cherry tree, seeing that Syoaran was perched on top of the slide.

Doubtful that he'd be waiting for her, since she had specifically asked him to go home before her, Gwen crouched in her current position and spied on him as a jealous wife would who suspected her husband of polygamy.

Soon enough, it all made perfect sense as Sakura Kinomoto approached the park, with her rollerblades slung over her shoulder looking as if somebody had just killed her cat. Truth hit her like a dozen darts when Syoaran's entire visage brightened as he caught sight of her. Leaping down from the slide, she heard Sakura open her mouth to protest when Syoaran—undeterred—caught her in an embrace.

Oh, and now he was crying.

Crying like a spoiled little brat who didn't know when he had enough. Crying like he had done absolutely nothing wrong. As if _he_ had been the only one suffering this entire time. It was unmanly. It was pathetic. She herself would never cry like that at the risk of her own pride.

Instead of the tears that should've formed in her eyes, she felt a certain anger take its place inside. Her hands trembled as she got to her legs.

_Don't look at another woman like that. You're supposed to be mine._

What a jerk.

Gwen kicked herself furiously for feeling so upset, her heart pounding in her ears as she fled from the park as discreetly as she knew possible. Running like a dog with its tail between its legs. _How could men be so fickle? Li—you chose me, the both of us knew what you had said. So why, so quickly—_

She pushed past the butler that opened the door to greet her in her mansion, disgusted for living such an obnoxious lifestyle to begin with. If she'd had been given the choice, she'd rather live a humble life than here with that son of a bitch that called himself her father.

Once she reached her room, she slammed the door behind her as she savagely ripped down all of Syoaran's childhood photographs with her from her wall. Did Sakura _really_ think that she was the one? No, it wasn't Sakura's doing. It was Syoran's indecisiveness that triggered this.

_If I were to kiss him, right now, he would kiss me back hands down with just as much passion and fervor. _Gwen flinched at the thought. She knew Syoaran's mind like the back of her hand. Didn't he feel any guilt for what he had done to and with _me_?

Meiling, too.

They'd been friends for almost two decades now, and she'd easily betrayed her for Kinomoto—so effortlessly _struck_ her to Sakura's defense. It wasn't fair. Was she that much better than her?

Her looks were average. Maybe even cute. She had quite a number of friends, but Gwen wouldn't consider her to be _popular_. Her brains and physique were exceptional, she'd give her that, but financially she had nothing compared to Gwen.

Were they that different? Did their differences make Gwen that much more inferior?

"No." This time, rage took over her body. "No. What am I thinking? This isn't Li's fault. It's Sakura's. She's deceiving him, she must have flaws somewhere. She's trying to beat me. But I won't let her take Syoaran. He matters too much."

_And I know that somewhere in his heart he feels the same way, _she thought, a smile weaving its way onto her face.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That day, Meiling sat on her bed, looking down at her trembling hands. She had hit Gwen. _Am I… have I gone completely nuts? I'm just making her hate me. That woman holds grudges and puts pride in making one's life a living nightmare._

"Just like what she's done to Sakura this week." Meiling muttered, shaking her head. But the sentiment still stood—she had struck Gwen, and didn't regret it in the least. However, when she thought back on all their memories as children, she couldn't find a single bad memory. Even when _she_ had tried to take Syoaran for herself, Gwen had not said a single thing to her defense as she literally stood back.

She had no confidence back then.

Actually, it sort of reminded her of Sakura now.

Frowning, she traced circles on the carpet with her foot. Friends or not, the answer was obvious. It was obvious that Gwen was wrong, and it had been obvious that she had taken Sakura's side from an unbiased perspective which had caused her to strike Gwen back in the classroom.

_I had done the right thing._

_So I don't care whether or not Gwen begins to make voodoo dolls out of straw and bits of my hair, I couldn't care less. I don't care. It'd all be Gwen's fault_

_And I'll be ready for her._

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Normally she didn't philosophize or try to understand any sort of psychological explanation, but this time she was interested to a fault. Regret was unmistakably embossed in those chestnut brown eyes, and looked at her so intently that Sakura doubted she could even string a single coherent sentence together. Shaking her head, she figured out that most of her words would appear monosyllabic.

Suddenly, she froze up and tried to mentally kick herself. What was she thinking about, caring so much? After all the grief this boy had caused her, how could she forgive him?

But she was in Syoaran's arms. And she loved him. And she'd won.

Sakura wrapped her arms around him and felt, for the first time in many days, happy again.

_How could I not?_

_For the first time since we were considered a couple, I saw Syoaran Li cry. And I take things back, when I said that Syoaran couldn't be trusted- I was wrong. He's loved me all along, at least, that's what I'd like to think. I've won the battle with Gwen. Is this the end of this traumatic experience? Or is it going to continue, just as Syoaran presumes? I believe in him. Seeing him cry like that, embracing me-- that's something Gwen can never take from us._

_Don't get me wrong. I don't find seeing my boyfriend weeping all over me is sweet, but he did so because he missed me. He was afraid of losing for me. Sorry to act all sappy, but I couldn't stay mad at him. Angry emotions just didn't exist then. I thought that I would try my best to stay absolutely independent, but I just couldn't. _

_He told me he loved me, not Gwen. Not that he ever thought he was going to go actually go back with Gwen... right? Not that he thought me of just an option between two people-- right? He didn't think I was just someone lovesick over him which he could choose over another lovesick lunatic..._

_...Right?_

.-.-.-.-.-.-

Touya nearly died of shock when the doorbell rang and he went to open it.

"Kaho!"

Right. His teacher, once upon a time. She substituted for quite a bit in his high school years.

… Okay, so she meant more to him than that.

She was his ex-girlfriend.

Interesting, because their break-up had never been distinctly classified as such. All he knew was, the same sophisticated, beautiful professor he met during University was standing right on his doorstep. For reasons still unknown to him.

"My, don't look too happy to see me." Kaho allowed a small smile while her eyes shone in that way that always got him. That "maybe-I'm-thinking-of-us-but-you-just-might-be-imagining-it" way. "Am I that scary to see?"

Touya wanted to say something about that, when he snapped his mouth shut. The two of them were over, and she hadn't come here for him. "What can I do for you?" He asked professionally.

"Um… I'm here to talk to Sakura… but I'm guessing she's busy." She stated with a matter-of-fact expression on her face. "If so is the case, I guess you shall do. You know about Sakura and everything that contains her powers, so you can just tell her when she's available, right?"

"Uh—yeah." Touya retained his usual self in a matter of… minutes and invited her into the living room. "Er, want tea? I was just making some for when our dad came home. Nothing special, I could always make some more."

"Sure." Kaho said simply, "if it's not too much trouble. I have something… interesting to tell you. It's from Eriol… he couldn't make it here from England, so he asked me to come in his place. I'm sure you wouldn't mind, I'm equally as reliable. He has told me all you need to know. It's quite urgent."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Gwen…! What happened?" Doctor Lee Mu exclaimed when his daughter came down into the dining room to eat their dinner. "Who did that to you? This is terrible—talk to me, Gwen."

Gwen looked up with a pout. Her eyes flickered with tantrum warnings in them, and she looked away indignantly. "It's nothing."

Lee watched in utter disbelief as Gwen sat down in her usual seat, and began analyzing her meal. For year she had acted like his worrying was a pain in the behind, and now he was supremely sick of it. As a father, it was his duty to worry. She was his responsibility.

"Giushaokaisaaru!" He practically bellowed, his voice towering over those of the chefs chattering in the kitchen, and speaking as they quickly brought out the dishes as fast as possible. Generous as he might be with the pays of his staff, he was very short-tempered when he had to be.

As a reaction to her father's yell, Gwen's hands shot up to her ears. "Ow… Dad! Are you trying to make me deaf? What's wrong with you?'

Glaring at his daughter, shock not written at all over his aging features, Lee crossed his arm over his chest. "Gwen, this is getting too far. You do not waltz into this house, with a bruise the size of your dead mother's ass and tell me that nothing is wrong."

Gwen sat very still, looking away immediately, a wave of pure fury flushed over her face. "I just remembered," she said abruptly, getting up. "I have some plans tonight. And they do not involve being in this house." Turning from the table, she ignored the death looks her father was shooting her, and fled to her room.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Syoaran stood up, and punched himself in the jaw. For the fifteenth time since he got up, he again collapsed onto his bed, his mind swirling with thoughts. Finally, he came up with the solution that had always been there. _I'm not dreaming. Sakura forgave me. She forgave me. Is she an angel?_

Sakura knew of Gwen's potential plans. If she did something to try and tear them apart, Sakura was aware of what could be coming. Gwen couldn't do anything to harm their relationship anymore.

"Let's just hope I'm right," he grumbled, rubbing his cheek gingerly. Suddenly, he felt the urge to punch himself again but decided against it.

"Syoaran-kun!" Meiling called from the door. "May I come in? Pretty please? You've been locked in there for ages. Come on out."

Pouting, Soaran opened the door and gazed out lazily. "Hey. Meiling."

"Oh God!" Meiling's eyes bugged out of her head. "What's up with your face? Um—I mean, your cheek… it's like a peach. Are you okay?"

"I hit myself." Syoaran said plainly. "… A lot."

"You have a self-abusing personality," Meiling sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well, whatever. What happened today?"

Oh yeah. I never told Meiling, thought Syoaran groggily.

"It's… a long story." Grumbled Syoran. "Really."

.-.-.-.-.-.-

That was it.

Touya practically did die of shock.

"So—you're telling me—" Touya said, his eye twitching, "that… a girl… MuWenGiu, is… a manipulator?"

"Well, she has a lot of magic. She'll be dangerous if she finds out about them and releases them." Kaho replied, "She has the reversed Clow. When Clow created his Clow Cards, now the Sakura cards, his brother… had tried to copy its design. But it backfired. They turned out Dark, and—well, opposite of the Sakura Cards. If Gwen is more a more powerful Captor than Sakura, then she might be in danger. Which is why Syoaran… and Meiling need to help her."

"She's here," Touya confirmed, blinking. "She goes to Sakura's school?"

"From what Eriol-kun told me, yes." Kaho replied. Her long, red-brown hair curled slightly at the ends, which were the reason she was twirling a strand of her hair with a finger. "Anyway, tell her I told you that, okay?"

"Okay…" replied Touya with uncertainty. Kaho gave him a sly smile. "You're dating Yuki now, aren't you?"

Yukito.

Touya almost fainted of embarrassment. He never had a problem saying that he liked Yukito before. "Yeah," he said finally. "Of course—how'd you find out? Did he say?"

"No, I haven't seen Yukito-san since I've come back from England." Kaho said. "Well, I'm not surprised. A bit disappointed, but that's how things go. I'll take my leave now—I think I overstayed my visit."

Disappointed? Repeated Touya ignorantly. Disappointed about what, exactly?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Gwen slid her backpack on. Who did that son of a bitch think he was, saying something like that about a woman he had raped. She shuddered, just as she had when she had found out that Lee was her father. _My mother's family had a name to uphold. That's why she married him when she found out she was pregnant with me. A product from a crime such as rape would be definitely look down upon. So they married for my sake, and her family's._

Gwen opened her bedroom door, looking around. No sign of her father. He was probably back down at the bar, downing glass after glass of Vodka. Even if he did catch her leaving, he probably couldn't care less. He was a doctor, all right, but a sad one. She didn't know how he managed to keep his job. "I guess I can leave this cursed house safely."

"Gwen?" A voice asked steadily behind her. "Are you... running away again?" Gwen looked to the side. It was Kei.

"Of course." She murmured. "I can't stay here, you know I can't stand that man. How can you live with a monster like him?"

Kei went up behind her and massaged her shoulders gently. "Probably because he never hated my mother or raped her. Plus he leaves me alone." His hands leaving her shoulders, they circled her waist in a brotherly hug. "Not to mention he never tried to sexually assault me when I was, what, ten?"

"Yeah." Gwen said, beginning to feel heavy sobs rising in her chest. "If you hadn't been there that time, I don't know what I would have done." She clutched onto him tightly. "I don't get it. Even if he didn't do anything... like **that** to you, you did get beaten often. He was drunk all the time. He still is."

Kei frowned. "If you're going to leave, then I want to come with you. You're the only reason I stayed here to begin with. It's hard enough bearing with that old bastard with you mentally tearing you apart like this. It'll be more sickening if it's only me. He'll blame me for everything that happens, and will only end up as a more scheming, fucked up jerk."

(Koneko: sighs my, my. What an abusive father .

For now, I'm is just creating some respect for Gwen. You don't want me making her a stuck-up bitch for no reason, do you OO

Well… yeah. This was made… and my writer's block still hasn't gone away (

So if you don't like it, I'll redo it . once ideas pop into my head.

If it's okay, then . oh good. Next chapter, w00t.

Review, ne?


	7. A Shadow of Past

Title: No One Will Ever Take Your Place

By: Victoria Tang

-.-.-.-.-.-.

Koneko says!: Yes, well, I was thinking maybe about pairing Meiling up with somebody- pairing Tomoyo with perhaps Eriol, and having a love triangle between Touya, Kaho-sensei and Yukito. But I thought that might take too long, and draw attention away from our own main love triangle. It also might just bore you to death while I'm writing all these chapters. What do you think?

-.-.-.-.-.-

There was something that morning that just gave Sakura her usual morning dose of endorphins and perky that she depended on to last the day being so ever-cheerful. For the first time in what felt like the longest time, she felt—energized. And _happy_. Which was a major development. Over the past nightmare of a week that could've been displayed in a soap opera of some reality TV show, she had lived a living hell. Now, the feeling of happiness felt foreign, and she readily welcomed its presence within her.

She was extremely cheerful for someone who had just been pounced on by a red alarm clock. Although, admittedly, that was more or less her fault, since it was she who had smacked it so hard that it had ricocheted off the back wall and slammed into her head over the edge. Finally focusing on its time, Sakura's eyes widened and she suddenly screamed.

Touya, out of nowhere, knocked tentatively on her door. "I heard a yell," he said loudly, "I'm guessing things are back to normal with you and your brat?"

"Syoaran is _not_ a brat!" Sakura defended as she quickly rushed to her closet and threw open its doors, feeling somewhat hypocritical as there was a voice deep inside her that said very intrusively, "Yes, you naïve twit, he _is_ a brat." She quickly shrugged on her uniform jacket and slid on her skirt just as her brother opened the door. She dashed towards her makeup table and began separating her hair into its usual pigtails, eyeing her bag on the vanity as she mentally ran over the homework that she may or may not have done from the previous night.

"At this rate, you'd be horrible living on your own. You wouldn't even have time to eat breakfast, much less make lunch." Touya snickered, "so I took the liberty of packing it for you this morning. You'd better go get it, before my evil side gets the better of me."

Sakura blinked at him, her hands frozen in their current position, one hand grasping a handful of hair and the other encircling the elastic. "Wait, you made me _lunch_? You're being so nice to me all of a sudden!"

"That's just because you're being overly cheerful." Touya replied, looking away, almost embarrassed. "Just shut up and hurry, or else you're going to be late. Then Dad's just going to blame me again."

Sakura grinned, grabbed her bag off the vanity and practically leapt onto Touya's back as he retreated to the hallway, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you!" She exclaimed, burying her face in his back.

"Sure."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Gwen looked down the unfamiliar winding streets of Japan. Empty, and hot. Sure, she had found her way to Syoaran's mansion with no problem at all, mainly because it stood so tall. However it, along with the rest of her surroundings, suddenly seemed so foreign and intimidating. As if she were approaching some stranger's home.

What luck. She turned and gave Ashen a strange face. "So we escaped our Evil Father without being subjected to his wrath. Knowing him, he's probably out or in drinking right now anyway, giving me new half-sisters as we speak. I don't want to stay here anymore."

Eyeing her gently, Ashen playfully whacked her on the arm. "Hey, what's with that defeatist attitude? We've come this far already, right? If anything, just by seeing me, I don't think Syoaran's got nearly as much jerk in him to turn the both of his childhood friends away."

Gwen was quiet for a moment, and cocked her head thoughtfully to the side. "Yeah. And even if Syoaran said no even to you, Meiling never would." She chewed her lower lip while discreetly stealing a look at Ashen to catch his all-too-predictable reaction.

"Me—Meiling?" Ashen repeated, his mouth hanging wide open, his adorable eyes brightening up his model-esque features. "She's here?" All of a sudden, as if he just suffered a spontaneous explosion of several arteries, his face turned a bright red. The way he got so excited over something like this and someone like her was just so cute. Gwen smiled innocently and pproached the large house, whispering sweet prayers to anyone—everyone. God, her dead mother; anyone with or without a pulse.

The bell rang and each passing second felt like hours. It was apparent that Meiling must have beat Eduardo to the door, because it was she who opened it, gasping for breath as if she had sprinted from another story. A look of surprise, shock, and anxiety was evidently mixed on the Chinese girl's face, as she eyed Gwen standing there on Syoaran's doorstep with a large suitcase in hand.

"Gwen! What are you—" Hopefully, she hadn't come to scream at her face, even though she had run over her mind several times last night now to apologize to prevent it from happening. Given what had happened to her in the past, Gwen really didn't deserve any more injury.

Of course, concurrently everything that happened to her as karma _was_ undoubtedly justified, but Meiling couldn't possibly put the blame on Gwen as to what had happened to her way back when to have changed her this way.

"I… I left home." Gwen said, sheepishly trying to look anywhere but Meiling's quiet gaze. Managing to settle her eyes at her mouth, which was as far up as she could force herself, it took all her will power to keep it there. "You're not some stranger, Meiling. You know that I couldn't have possibly stayed with him any longer."

Meiling's eyes immediately softened, and her grip on the doorknob relaxed, as a look of pure sympathy and what may have been sorrow crossed her face. A hint of relief could also be seen, which somewhat puzzled Gwen considering what had happened between the two of them recently.

Holding her breath, Gwen cursed at herself, feeling ashamed for having to bring something like this up. Normally, even if she were to beg for something, she would never use her poor relationship with her father as a stepping stone for what she wanted. Somehow, it had just—slipped out. "Won't you help me?"

"Of course," Meiling murmured, almost warmly, as she enveloped Gwen in a hug, rubbing her back consolingly as she felt her renewed friend shudder with soft sobs against her, something she thought would never happen. "I wanted to apologize to you about what had happened. I shouldn't have hit you. It's just, I'm such good friends with Sakura now, I had forgotten all about—but you love him too. I know you always have. And I'm sorry."

Opening her eyes, Gwen hastily wiped her tears before moving back, forcing a smile. "I… I brought someone. Just another reason for me to come see you, even if you didn't forgive me." Turning, she gestured towards a figure standing on the opposite side of the lawn. Squinting, Meiling followed her outstretched finger and gasped. "_Ash?"_

As expected, all previous thoughts escaped her mind, and as predicted, she practically sprinted down the front steps and cut across the yard to get to him on the sidewalk. Leaning against the doorframe, Gwen couldn't help but laugh as she swung both arms around his neck. Her loud, piercing voice could somewhat be heard even all the way over where she was.

"Gwen?"

Suddenly realizing the gravity of her situation, Gwen jumped quickly, understanding she wasn't completely out of the frying pan just yet. Syoaran's handsome face invaded her vision as he showed up at the door behind her, giving her an inquisitive look. Then he looked straight ahead and caught sight of Ashen and Gwen together.

After exchanging knowing smiles, the two of them cracked up.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Sakura! Good morning!" Tomoyo called out cheerfully, sitting down beside her best friend. "Meiling called me last night to fill me on the cavities. She's been doing the honors since you haven't nearly been keeping me updated enough." Touching Sakura's hand gently, she grinned. "What happened? You look so happy today!"

Sakura was about to burst into joyous song when Meiling entered the classroom, Syoaran and Gwen following not too far behind. _Together._ And not in the "I-bumped-into-her-purely-coincidentally-and-we-both-made-our-way-in" sort of together. It was the sort of "we're-together-and-have-been-together-and-are-conscious-about-being-together" kind of together. Yes, when Sakura panicked, her thoughts were extremely repetitive.

"Good morning Sakura." Immediately approaching her, Syoaran instinctively drew her close and kissed her lightly on top of her head, melting away all doubts that had formed. Gwen immediately seemed extremely interested in her black suede shoes, and it wasn't anger that Sakura saw in her eyes—but a stir of hurt. Was it because now that she was in Syoaran's hospitality and care, she shouldn't do anything that may anger him? It was possible.

Tomoyo also seemed to notice Gwen's peculiarly docile behaviour, but Meiling didn't seem to give her any sign of explanation or gossip. Shuffling away from the couple, Syoaran sat down appreciatively in Tomoyo's generously forfeited seat.

Also breaking away from the group, Meiling began to fill Tomoyo in on the details. Looking down at Sakura adoringly, Syoaran couldn't seem to let her go. "Would you like to come to the amusement park tonight?" He asked, looking back and forth from Sakura to Gwen, making it clear the invitation was extended to the both of them.

Sakura readily accepted, and Gwen seemed to genuinely consider it, when a shadow of despair passed over her face. "Oh! I can't. I really, really, can't." Her eyes looked—actually _apologetic._ The sincerity that was so novel to Sakura seemed to make Gwen's disposition much, _much_ more sweeter, and much more attractive. "I have a ballet rehearsal tonight. I'm a lead role, I can't afford to not be there. If I'm absent for more than three days, my understudy will officially take my role. And if I don't call in with an important excuse or doctor's note, I might blow my career as a dancer for life."

-.-.--.-.-.--.-.-.--.-.

"What in God's name do you _mean_ when you say my children are _missing?"_ Jade hissed, horrified. Technically, Ashen was her only biological child, but that didn't cause her regard for Gwen as a daughter any less obvious.

"Have you seen your husband?" The maid who had delivered the news asked worriedly. "Do you think it is necessary for us to contact the police?"

"I will find him." Jade assured her, and quickly tore down the walls to get to his study. There was no way he wouldn't be there, and she was correct. He was always there--- drinking, as usual. Empty shot glasses and bottles littered the floor, while all his books seemed untouched.

"My God, they're missing!" She exclaimed in a panic as she flung open the large, wooden doors. Lying on a futon beside two scantily-clad women, was her husband. Jade felt compelled to throw up, but wrestled the awful feeling down as she reminded herself that by now she should be used to his manwhorish personality.

"That's nice." Lee replied lazily, and the woman to his left sat up, irritated from being so rudely interrupted. "Who is this?" She demanded.

"My sister." Lee replied, as if Jade wasn't there to disprove his ridiculous attempt to lie. It just came to show that some people were intelligent strictly in the academic sense. The presumed prostitute slumped back down on the couch. "So that's all? Who's missing?"

"My sister has an insect collection," Lee murmured, stroking her perfectly shaven legs and thigh. "There are two especially exotic bugs that I detest above all that she fancies. I've wanted to seen them crushed for years, so forgive that I don't seem to care about their disappearance…"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It had already been three, painfully slow hours since her rehearsal had started. Somehow, she doubted that military training was more brutal than this. The amount of energy exerted to maintain a sense of poise, balance, grace and whatever traits it was that being a ballerina entailed—ugh, needless to say, it was an absolute pain in the ass.

She had prevented herself from thinking of her personal life all day. She refused to think about Syoaran and his relationship with Gwen. She refused to think even of Ashen and his relationship with Meiling. And she absolutely refused to think of her dad. The word alone made her cringe.

Then again, from being worked as hard as she was, no one could blame her for not having any time whatsoever to even _think_ for herself for just a minute or even half.

"Again! Arabesque! Turnout!"

"Battement Tendu! And again!"

Gwen stood up, a layer of sweat glistening on her skin as she began doing the moves that her instructor incessantly shouted out at a speed impossible for the average human being.

"_Vite_!" Her teacher yelled in his native tongue, almost exasperatedly. "Gwen, tu est une tres bonne danseur. Vite, _vite_!"

Feeling sweat streaming down her temple unattractively like rivers, she had to perform all her moves absolutely perfect under her instructor's watchful eye. She began to twirl more quickly than usual. The brightness of her eyes had to "reflect the inner soul." She felt like shit.

The spectators peering in through the glass seemed to have all eyes on her, the lead who was taking in the most critique and seemed to display the most potential, and it was her job to give them a show. Their approval in this window just reinforced her confidence that she'd excel in the actual production.

Somehow, her mind wasn't really into it, but she demanded herself to stick to the now.

_Shut up, you whining brat,_ she scolded herself, _You're the swan. Be a swan. Be fast._ The word buzzed in her mind as the pain from overexerting her body and previous fatigue seemed to be getting the better of her. _I didn't get Syoaran, but at least I'll always have dancing._

Her instructor ended up shouting out some other complaint or six to her, when Gwen suddenly felt her body fall out of sync from her intention, and with a shockingly agonizing scream, Gwen's lack-of-concentration caused ber body to twist her foot in what seemed like a 180-degree turn, and her spotter—Paul—had no chance of catching her as she fell ungracefully from the side of the stage, ramming her head hard against one of the large support beams nearby.

Her leg, already injured, made a deafening crack against one of the wooden props lying on the ground, but the piercing throb of her skull dominated any other sense of pain. But she could only think of one thing that could possibly be worse.

_Please don't tell my father…_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"How _could_ this have happened?" Lee yelled angrily, storming down the hospital hall as he made his way to the room where Gwen was lying meekly in her hospital bed. Her leg was wrapped in layers of pins and bandages under a cast, hung up by a metal casing hanging it limply into the air. His wife had come to literally drag him from work, and he was stricken from having that horrid woman interrupt him in his time of professional work.

He eyed her with nothing less than disgust as he caught side of her, fully conscious. "Who in God's name do you think you are, girl? You leave this house, sever ties with this family, and then you get yourself screwed up in the leg. If you're going to leave, by all means, leave! Stop causing me trouble!" Feeling all the blood rush to his face in the midst of his fury, he grabbed a handful of Gwen's hair and pulled her up from the pillow. "You women! You and your mother. You're worthless!"

"Let go of me, you chauvinistic cow!" Shrieked Gwen, managing to knock herself free from her father, grateful her fall had not affected her brain. "Don't you ever touch me again, you pedophiliac!"

"What the fuck are you _doing_?" A voice yelled from the door, and Lee swivelled around just in time to see his son standing there, standing up tall and almost looking down at his father. Had he always been so large? Even at his full height, Lee couldn't tower over Ashen like he used to.

"Shouldn't you be someplace else? Why must trouble always come in pairs?"

"Shut up, you! Get the hell away from my sister!" Ashen dashed into the room and shoved Lee, hard, who luckily loosened his grip on Gwen's hair instead of taking it with him. "Get out!"

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Lee was more than happy to be relieved of any remotely parental duties, and his joy could be seen as he skipped merrily to his extravagant car. The nurse, who had looked threatened by the door, entered the room in a hyperventilating state. After calming down herself, she took a deep breath.

"Is this a bad time?" She asked quietly.

"Yes. No. Maybe," Ashen grumbled indecisively as he paced the room and laid one hand on top of Gwen's before glancing back at the nurse. "What is it?"

"I—we need your X-ray results for this to be properly diagnosed, but—your ankle…" the nurse hesitated. "Um, this accident was caused by dance? Are you… very good?" Whatever ethnicity she was, her accent definitely showed.

"The best in her class," Ashen replied hastily, wrestling down a surge of pride for his sister as he sensed bad news approaching. "How is it? How is she?"

"Externally, all the other wounds on her body will heal. Most likely relatively quickly. But her ankle… I'm afraid it has suffered sever damages both from the dancing, and from the fall. It'll take almost a _year_ for you to get back to walking by yourself. In the meantime, you've been assigned to crutches, but—"

"A…a yar. Okay, so it'll be a little while before I can dance again. I guess… it'll just take longer for me to get back into shape." Gwen murmured, keeping back tears as best she could.

The nurse looked apologetic. "I'm… really sorry. But by the mere _look_ of the ankle, surgery simply won't heal it enough to return it to its initial strength. Parts of the muscle have been torn, and won't even ever heal. I'm sorry, but… you won't ever be able to dance again."

-.-.-.-.-.--.-.-.—

Lee rammed the glass so hard against the hard surface of the counter he was surprised it didn't shatter in his grip or on impact. Flipping it upside down, he groggily barked at the bartender something about shoddily-crafted supplies. Jake Wells, the one serving him, frowned at him as he reluctantly refilled the glass.

"Don't you think you've had enough?"

Just by the mere sound of her voice, even through the drunken atmosphere Lee could still recognize the authoritarian tone of his wife's voice. He turned to glare at her as if she were some foreign alien, trying not to acknowledge the fact that she had followed him into this bar.

"Oh, do shut up, woman!" Lee yelled when Jade tried to speak again, grabbing a nearby bottle and throwing it at her head. If he wasn't so influenced by the alcohol, it may have just smashed right into her face. But due to his blurred vision, it smashed into the wall behind her. Letting out a shriek at the sound, Jade's hands flew to her face, frozen in shock. She turned white as a sheet and wouldn't stop trembling.

"Look at you! You've definitely had more than enough! You're going home, right now!"

"I told you to shut up! Who are you, my mother?" Lee shouted angrily, his loud voice bellowing over the music that was playing inside the bar. He got to his feet and accidentally knocked his stool over. "You think you own me, woman? How _dare_ you order me around!" Walking right up to her in the most intimidating way he knew possible, he pulled her chin closer to him with one hand and grabbed at her ass. "Don't try to tell me what to do. You're nothing more than a vessel to your husband."

"You're not my husband, you drunken lout." Jade replied, her voice calm and low. "You're hardly even a father. You're nothing but a piece of trash who got a fast break—me."

Suddenly looking more infuriated than she'd ever seen, Lee stood up tall so that his shadow alone loomed over his wife, bathing her in the darkness. Although most of him was silhouetted by the backlights, she could still see the glint of murder in his eyes as he took hold of her collar and grabbed a fistful of her hair—before slamming it hard into the wall behind her.

Again.

And again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Oh my God!" Sakura covered her mouth with one hand, stifling a gasp. Her eyes were as big as saucers, and all thoughts of enjoying this night flew immediately from her mind as Syoaran picked up the call from Ashen. "This has to be some sick joke, right?"

"It couldn't be. He wouldn't lie. And especially about something like _this._" Those were pretty much the only words Syoaran spoke since the call, as they had immediately hailed a cab and paid the exorbitant fee at whatever cost if it took them to the hospital that much faster.

It hadn't quite registered into Sakura's brain the damage Gwen's accident had caused until the two of them conversed hurriedly with the secretary and apparently one of Gwen's nurses when she realized in the most bitter way that the whole situation was very, very, real.

"You mean—Gwen—she can't dance anymore?" Syoaran asked, surprised at the sweat that laced his hairline despite his hands feeling so cold. "You can't be serious! Aren't you hotshot doctors? Do—"

"Syoaran. You're in a hospital." Ashen said as he approached the waiting room. "It was the only thing she ever truly enjoyed, and now it's been taken away from her."


	8. Consequences

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-

Koneko notes…: see? Gwen's not that bad without a reason ;-;

.-.-.-.-

Ashen was way past infuriated with his father. The word 'fury' didn't even come close to explaining the mixture of hate, disgust, and sadism that he felt for the man from whom half of his very being was composed of.

How dare he? How **dare** he.

Not only did he not give two damns about his offspring or the fact that his daughter had just lost all chance for an amazing career of glamour and respect, but he just had to go and lay his filthy, masturbating hands on his _mother._ His mother! The one who actually put up with their husband all these years for _their_ sake. How could such a man with such _blatant dumbassery_ even be deceived? The thought was unfathomable.

"Where is she?" He ran down the hallway from Gwen's hospital room to the emergency room, where her mother had been rushed into. He couldn't see a thing.

"Why, hello." A voice said behind him, who appeared to be a doctor holding onto a clipboard. His casual behavior made Ashen wasn't to just smack him over the head with something. He looked down at his chart before looking at him curiously. "Patient 20019—are you family?"

Despite not knowing who exactly 20019 was, Ashen was positive that it was his mother. "I'm her son. What happened?"

"I'd like you to calm down as much as you can. I'm positive the situation with your father will be sorted out accordingly in good time." The patronizing tone of this man's voice was making Ashen all the angrier.

He promptly decided that he hated this man.

-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-.-

She wasn't stupid.

She knew what had happened to her mother, and no matter how Ashen pretended like there was nothing out of the ordinary despite her massacring her foot, she simply knew. One of the interns had come in earlier and delivered the bad news personally with as much sincerity she could muster.

Needless to say, she felt like bursting into tears. There was just too many things happening all at once—and it was simply overwhelming. She could not remember the last time she cried, but here the impulse was—burning the back of her eyeballs to be let out.

"God!" Gwen pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes and held them there. "My life is so messed up." Everything just happened to be destroying themselves all at once—it was absolutely terrible. It was a nightmare become reality. The only one she could depend one was Ashen, and he was under just as much stress as she was.

Her ankle stung like a thousand needles as she ignored the pain and managed to crawl out of the apparatus keeping her leg in the air. Giving a wild grab for the crutches that had been assigned to her for future use to the side, she put half her weight on one crutch and the other half on the wall as a support as she hobbled towards the room where her stepmother now lay.

Unfortunately, she didn't even get past the plant beside her door before her leg seemed to give out completely and she collapsed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Horrified. The one word that could explain how she felt. This was absolutely impossible. It was _unfathomable_ what had occurred in the past few _hours_ to Gwen—several hours that could potentially traumatize a teenager for life.

Sakura hadn't dared to move a budge from her seat the entire time, and was focusing on the door down the hallway as if Gwen, Ashen, and her mother would burst open the doors all smiles and yell, "Surprise!"

Syoaran, seated beside Sakura, felt genuinely impressed at her worry. After all Gwen had done to antagonize and mentally torment Sakura, she was willing to cancel out their date to sit here and be there for her.

Just then a figure in that same hall fell limply out the door, a wooden support smacking against the wall. Abruptly jumping to her feet, Sakura bolted down the hall to the side of the figure who had just fallen.

"Gwen!" Following suit, the two trackstars managed to get there before any nurses did. "What are you doing? You're not supposed to be up!"

"My ankle—" gasped Gwen, curling into a fetus position to block out any external factors to endure the pain on her own. She gripped her leg so hard and dug her nail into her skin to subside the pain.

"Don't do that," Sakura whispered, tears springing into her eyes. "It'll just get worse. Syoaran, get a doctor. We need to—"

"No!" Gwen protested, her upper body struggling. "I want to see Ashen. I have to. He's with his mother, and I'll have to go to him—he would never leave her."

_She's far more important to him than I am._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After piously bidding his farewells, Ashen rose from one of the stools and let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "I need to check up on Gwen." With that, he turned and left the door, when he saw Gwen writhing on the floor, screaming as a bunch of people in white suits tried to get her under control. One of them was holding onto a horrifyingly long needle.

"Stop! Keep that away from her!" Ashen shouted, smacking the needle aside as he almost tackled the doctor to get to Gwen. He cradled her head protectively in his chest and glared accusingly at those around him. "What in God's name do you think you're doing to my sister?"

"She refuses to go back to her room." Dr. Daniels replied steadily. "We really _must_ calm her down for surgery preparations."

"What operation?" Gwen asked, her wide eyes moving even larger.

"Don't you dare think of worrying about it," Ashen whispered, wiping a stray tear that had escaped Gwen's discipline. "Goodness, Gwen. I haven't seen you cry in ages."

"I've never seen you cry ever." Gwen countered, her hand still gripping his shirt as she was set back down on the bed. After analyzing her leg and reprimanding her like there were no tomorrow, the two siblings were finally alone.

"Why does it matter, anyway? The part of my life that needs my leg most is history anyway." Gwen snapped bitterly. "Why not just kill me now and save the drama and money for someone with a purpose?"

Ashen felt like bursting into tears. Ever since she was young his sister had built everything about her to be independent and strong. She was so proud, and he was proud of her. But—once in a while, everyone needs something to lean on. Her father's pressure had made her excessively bitter, and he seemed to be the only person to see her as someone who was truly sweet. She didn't deserve this.

Any of this.

Sliding behind her, he lay her head in his lap in place of a pillow. Stroking her hair gently, he whispered lines of poetry and she looked up at him inquisitively. "What are you doing?"

"Just think of the good things." He whispered. "Hurry up and get better. I won't forgive you if you and mom both abandon me."

Gwen was quiet for a moment.

"If me and _'mom?'"_ Gwen said, trying to sit up when Ashen placed both hands on her shoulders to keep her down and calm. "What do you mean? She couldn't be…"

"Yeah." The word cut through strong and fast, and for the first time since as far as she could remember, she saw tears fall down his pale face. There was no sobbing, no sniffling.

Just tears.


	9. Cap comes off the Bottle

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-

Koneko says: Well? Sympathizing for Gwen just yet? Still want her to jump from a forty floor building? Burn in the fires of hell? Or whatever morbid thoughts you might be thinking about someone who would dare try to interrupt the lovey-dovey relationship between Syoaran and Sakura? I just wanted to make it so that Gwen's not just some stuck-up bitch for no reason. Does she seem so much of a bitch now? Let me know.

.-.-.-.-

Gwen flinched. She grabbed onto Kei's triceps frantically and used her abs to get her into an upright sitting position without anyone's aid. "Wait, what do you mean by_ that?_ Kei, answer me!" The doctor quickly demanded for her to lie back down, but Gwen tuned him out. In fact, aside from a loud ringing sound increasing in volume in her ears, she couldn't hear a thing. "What do you mean, 'she's dead?' You can't be serious. Mom's in a coma, she's not dead. Quit exaggerating!"

Kei just looked away, when his eyes flicked up and looked intensely at Dr. Briel who was suddenly very interested in disinfecting instruments. "Doctor, we're teenagers. Not young children who are unaware of flat lines and lack of a pulse."

Gwen's gaze went from her brother to the doctor in a second. She felt a loud pounding in her heart like she had never felt before, even when her own mother died, and it felt like one of her organs was trying to crawl its way up her throat. Evidently, it was _not_ a pleasant feeling. "Are you _serious?"_ She screeched, and as if abiding by routine several nurses promptly filed in and bounded to her sides to hold her down. "I'm asking you if you've been lying to me, you freaking quack! Aren't you bound to truth by law or something?" She kicked with her free leg as much as possible as the nurses did their best to wrestle her down. "Tell me my stepmother isn't dead!"

_Why me?_

"You're impressive, Mr. Kei." Dr. Briel said dryly with a small smile, but Kei only rolled his eyes and shock his head. "I beg to differ. It's common knowledge. If you had to study to know _that_, I don't think you're fit to run this hospital wing." Dr. Briel just ignored the comment and plowed on, his gaze shifting to Gwen.

"I could think of better times to deliver the bad news," he murmured quietly, to Gwen's horror. "But you did not hear wrong. Mrs. Jade Wu is now dead. Your father has been sent to the station, and according to what the law states, he will have to face consequences and the two of you may have to be separated."

Removing his glasses, he gently massaged the bridge of his nose. "We were planning to fake Jade's condition as comatose until you were in much better condition, but it looks like that will be unnecessary. "

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Syoaran's worried gaze shifted over to Sakura, who was fidgeting with her fingers like there was no tomorrow. She had been sitting in her hospital chair, barely moving, looking absolutely ill as if someone she _liked_ just died. She looked uneasily back at him. "Do you think… she'll be okay?" She asked teary-eyed, her lower lip subconsciously trembling despite herself.

No, definitely not.

Bitter thoughts ran through Syoaran's mind, as well as pain and anguish. Suddenly losing feeling to his legs, he collapsed into a chair and his entire upper body lurched forward, his elbows holding his head in his hands. His dark brown bangs shadowed his eyes—and entire face, for that matter.

All thoughts of sympathy towards Gwen was immediately pushed aside, when Sakura quickly got to the floor, kneeling in front of her lover. "Syoaran? What's wrong?" She lowered her face and looked up at him when her body recoiled back in shock after catching a glimpse of his face. Tears slid down his face and droplets unexpectedly fell onto his ghostly-white fists. Without any prior notice, he immediately grabbed her, and practically pulled her into him.

"Don't look," he ordered, almost inaudibly in a whisper. "I'll stop in a minute… I'll smile again in just one minute. Just don't…"

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Sakura whispered, feeling her own brimming tears threatening to fall as she kissed the top of his forehead. "I know Gwen means the world to you, but right now we can't do anything but pray for her."

"What the _fuck_ are you two doing?" An angry voice sounded behind Sakura. She whirled around to see Ashen there, and believe it or not, he was on the verge of tears himself. "My sister is in an operation, wallowing in her sufferings partly due to the two of _you_, who might as well be in a hotel room. Get out if that's what you're going to be doing, asshole!"

"Hold on a second. Why aren't _you_ with her?" Syoaran asked, his voice surprisingly unaffected by any closing of the throat from the tears. Ashen practically knocked Sakura out of the way before shoving Syoaran against the wall and picking him up by the collar of his shirt. "A fine question, isn't it? I got kicked out, since the surgery is private." He snarled. "I don't understand. What's so good about you? Why would Gwen want to go through all the trouble for an impudent brat like you? A guy who would go cuddling with another girl while _she_ is enduring an innumerous amount of pain! You think you fucking know her, hotshot? You don't know a thing!"

"Dude, calm the fuck down--!" Syoaran began when Ashen pulled him closer, his dark eyes glittering with untarnished anger. "You think Gwen's bitter, don't you? You think she's a bitch? Just think, _think_ of what happened to her. You don't know the details, but the gist of it is enough to make anyone sick."

Syoaran stared at him, his eyes dead, hardly feeling a thing in his body. Ashen wasn't wrong. Hell, he knew these things had happened to Gwen. He just hadn't come to realize how much of it stacked on top of one another.

"You're right." Syoaran replied simply. "You're not wrong- nobody should ever have to go through something like that." This seemed to anger Ashen more. He slammed his palm against the wall, beside Syoaran's face. "_Something?_ It wasn't just a _something_ that had happened to her, you conniving bastard, it was many things."

"—And it must be terrible for her," Syoara continued pointedly, ignoring Ashen's comment. "To have nobody in a time when she needs him or her the most. I'm sorry, but I can't do a single thing for her right now and neither can you I love Gwen, more than words can tell. That's why I'm standing here, right now, like I have been for the past five hours. I just don't want her to the way she wants me. I can't respond to her feelings the way she wants me to, and that's what sets me apart."

Sakura moved back until she felt her back bum into the wall. Two childhood friends, friends that knew Syoaran at least three times as long as she'd known him… and arguing over a girl who wanted him. Was this all her fault?

Gwen was suffering so much, large in part because she longed for Syoaran with such startling devotion. Her life was so perfect… Syoaran didn't want to talk about these things, but she could tell her cared.

_Am I just forcing him to be with me?_

If this is really what Gwen's past was like...

_She should be able to walk out of this hospital with at least something she wants._

_...Right?_


	10. Glimpse of the Past

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

.-.-.-.-.-

Koneko notes…: love is a twisted thing. And misunderstandings just make it worse—more complex. When both are combined in with uncertainty and doubt, even the rosiest of futures can become stormy.

.-.-.-.-

As she watched the cringe-worthy sight of the two headstrong boys arguing, Sakura looked away, hoping to God she didn't look as ill as she felt. Why, of all people, wasn'tAshenjust whirling around and blaming _her_ for all these disasters? When it came to Syoaran, he knew more than anyone that it was ultimately Sakura's fault for taking him away from his sister.

The more these thoughts flurried around her mind, the more her stomach churned with increasing viciousness as time flew by. Her chain of thought, however, was rudely interrupted from an even louder outburst of the two of them shouting.

"You two! What on earth do you think you are doing?" The secretary at the front desk quickly marched over to Syoaran and Ashen. "I've been watching you for three minutes now, and I think it's time you put a period to your thoughts. This is a hospital, not some club where you can scream to your heart's content! How shameful of you. Or should I say shame_less_. What kind of morals do your parents teach you, anyway?"

Breaking apart, Syoaran shoved Ashen off and away from him and fell back into the seat beside Sakura, scowling and swearing blatantly under his breath. Ashen just turned and began to pace, a good several steps away from Sakura's boyfriend.

She couldn't stand this awkward atmosphere a second longer. Sakura got to her feet and looked apologetically at Syoaran. "I'll be back. I just need to wash my face in the bathroom." Sakura said clumsily and made herself scarce.

As expected, beyond the door that led to the lady's room, was the pungent reek of choke-worthy lemony smells, mixed with the scent of… well, toilet.

Sakura barely made it into a stall before she threw up.

Staggering over to the sink once she stopped feeling so queasy, she blasted water into her face which most effectively numbed whatever senses she felt. After about a minute, she reversed the tap and wiped her face with several paper towels. It took her a couple of minutes to wait until her face began to revert back to its natural color, and the green in her eyes began to shine again.

As she left the washroom, she almost rammed into Ashen, who had been going perpendicular to her in the direction of the men's bathroom. "Ah--! I'm so sorry!" She squeaked helplessly as he reached out to steady her. Ashen wasn't exactly the face she wanted to come across in the hospital, and she could bet that he wasn't going to be the most pleasant of people to her.

Turning from his destination after a brief pause, Ashen cleared his throat, almost anxiously. "Do you have a minute?" He hesitated. "I want to talk to you. Privately."

Praying for any way out of this situation, Sakura swallowed nervously. "Of course." She imagined his lectures on her lame boyfriend-snatching skills. She imagined him yanking on her hair and forcing her onto her knees to apologize to Gwen.

Ashen led her to a relatively isolated place beside the out-of-service vending machines, and leaned against one of the beige walls. "I think I already know what you are going to say to me," Sakura began, when Ashen cut in abruptly.

"No, you don't. I can't say I feel it is my place to say this, but I think you ought to know." He looked away hesitantly. "It won't take long."

"Listen, you must think that I must have made some error mistaking Syoaran and my puppy love for something more, but I—"

"You don't get it, do you?" He turned to her and the look in his eyes immediately silenced her. "I don't care about any of that. As far as I can tell, Syoaran looks at you with far more adoration than I've ever seen those apathetic eyes direct at anyone, including his own mother." His voice took a gentler tone as he continued. "Please, just listen?"

And thus, Sakura was let in on Gwen's family history, something fairly suitable for some sort of surreal drama.

It would appear that Jasmine Wong, Gwen's mother, was born into a family with rank and wealth—everything an asset. She was the daughter of a proud and successful father from a line of doctors and a popular show hostess, her mother. She was also heiress to the entirety of the Wong Hospital Wing and W.W.L. Industries.

Like most teenagers do during their youth, Jasmine had been persuaded into entering this trendy bar by some of her University colleagues. Naturally, given her demographics and age, none of this was out of the ordinary. Like her father, however, Jasmine had a mind not to intoxicate herself and only ordered non-alcoholic beverages, much to her friends' disdain.

The youthful bartender, however, was a more greed-driven, materialistic man as he was easier bribed by another customer to serve her drink with a small vial of tranquilizer. Gwen's mother had always been an extremely attractive woman, and was even more stunning during her youth. She easily attracted boys left and right, but never used her beauty to her advantage.

However, the effect of the date rape drug completely knocked her out when trying to make her way to the washroom—when the young adult who had bribed the bartender, another student attending the same medical school, dragged her to the hotel across the street.

When she came to, she was in a bed, with that animal of a potential doctor fucking her brains out. He repeatedly raped her, even when she cried and fought and begged for him to stop. As anyone could have possibly guessed to this point, the rapist was none other than the conniving, low-life Lee Wen. Needless to say, despite studying all about pregnancy and the whole birth-giving process, he had excluded the need to use protection and thus Gwen as conceived. Since she didn't want the public hearing of such a scandal, and putting a bad name on her family's reputation, she married Lee to keep her pregnancy prior to the wedding a secret to make it less scandalous.

Since Lee was the one who committed this crime, he had no choice but to oblige to her marriage request or else she'd sue his ass off and then some. After all that, he despised her. He got the ass he wanted, and was content with that. But, despite half of Gwen being part of that monster, her mother loved Gwen for being her daughter. Every spare second of the day was poured into her... all the talent, morals and lessons in life a mother would tell a child-- until she died. Gwen was young, then. But she hasn't forgotten a word her mother had said to her.

After her mother's death, Gwen inevitably grew up in an empty mansion full of maids and gardeners. She literally locked herself up in her room with books and read, even when Jade married him and Ashen was first introduced to her.

"I just thought of Gwen as a natural bookworm and left her to her novels, when one day she saw me playing outside with Syoaran, whom I had met at school." Ashen kicked at a rather large ball of dust lying on the ground, and shook it in irritation as it clung onto the ends of his shoelace. "After that, he was like a magnet drawing her outdoors rather. Considering how cute she was, it struck me as no surprise that he had immediately invited her to play. After that, they were absolutely inseparable."

Until Syoaran had moved to Tokyo, the two of them had been together and were rarely seen apart. However, only more conflicts arose once he departed and took the light from her life with him.

She was subject to bullying from many of the girls for being a 'slut' due to her unrivaled, unintended popularity with the male population at the school. No girls wanted to speak to her or group with her, so she found her niche among the guys which just fueled their disdain further.

You know Japan. Hazing involved physical and verbal abuse, vandalizing, theft, brutal pranks—she not only endured it, but that was when she was actually cheerful about it.

Afterward, their father had begun drinking more and more frequently in larger amounts, and didn't even bother to conceal the fact that he had around ninety mistresses here and there to serve him every half-hour of the year. If a bunch of prostitutes purchased from the local whorehouse weren't enough, one night during her freshman year Gwen was asked if she might participate in a small "talk" concerning her dressing behavior as of late.

"Actually, he more like demanded it. Of course I was curious, and I know how Gwen felt about our father for being such a womanizer. So I peeked in, and had leapt into the fray just in time to save her from being sexually assaulted from our very own father. She was quite physically developed for her age, so it didn't surprise me she was capable of turning other guys on, but—"

"That's absolutely disgusting," Sakura spat out bitterly, unable to bite her words back or keep the horror from her tone.

"I know. It was because of that I earned her trust, and we've shared an irreplaceable bond ever since. After that incident, Gwen was always very cautious around our father, and for good reason. But he ignores the both of us now as if we don't even exist. By second semester one of our high school teachers also attempted to force himself on her, and he may have damn well succeeded if Syoaran hadn't shown up. I wasn't supposed to know but—how could I not?"

It wasn't until then that all Gwen's mental ignorance seemed to disappear, and it was like her exterior completely froze over—hardened. It was like nothing fazed her. She was this gorgeous, independent, indomitable person who had virtually no flaws.

But she was sure to crack.

Ashen looked at the blinking sign on the vending machine: Out of Service.

"I'm sure you're aware of what happens after that," he said silently. "Gwen's been robbed of everything that's ever meant anything to her. She hardly depends on anybody, but she knew that there were pillars nearby if she ever needed to take a rest." His voice choked, and he cleared it in agitation. "Not anymore. Her mother's gone, my mother's gone, Syoaran's gone. Her—"

"Her career," Sakura interrupted with a low murmur. Ashen nodded.

"She was going to be hired for a big time production. A scout had come two weeks ago to analyze the performance of her and Rachael, her competitor. But everyone knew Gwen had it in the bag. Sad how life works sometimes, huh?"

Sakura tuned him out. She was far too busy letting the heartbreaking words sink in. Of all the things that she's lost, the only possible thing she could ever gain back would be...

"It's my fault, isn't it?" Sakura asked emotionally, "if I weren't with Syoaran, she'd still have a pillar, besides you. I cannot revive the dead. I cannot erase her past or heal her ankle. But perhaps with her heart, if just a little—"

"Stop."

To Sakura's surprise, Ashen cut in. "Don't think for even a second that it's your fault. Meiling told me about what Gwen's been doing to you—and you've put up with far more than your fair share of Gwen when she tried to take Syoaran back on her own. I… apologize on her behalf, but the bottom line is Syoaran chose _you._ His feelings for you are genuine, with or without someone like Gwen practically throwing herself at his feet."

"But I—"

Sakura shuddered. How could someone as close to Gwen as Ashen be so nice to her archrival nemesis? Didn't he want her to break up with her boyfriend? He cared about Gwen so much, so how could it be that he wanted her to be with him instead?

Smiling softly, Ashen tilted Sakura's chin and kissed her lightly on top of her head. "Gwen's going to be okay—both physically, and mentally. She'll find somebody. I know she will."

"I hope so." Sakura lifted her head to keep back the tears. "Gwen is so beautiful, and her talent is apparent. Why would Syoaran care about someone like me more than somebody who I couldn't possibly compare to?"

"Gwen's a pretty girl. But that's not to say that you aren't, Sakura. Plus there's something more attractive in you than your face. Syoaran sees that."

"Why are you so nice? I'm just an evil girl who took away your sister's boyfriend."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a crash sounded and the both of them braced themselves for something dangerous. It took a half minute for them to realize no harm had been done directly to them, and they book exchanged alarmed looks before bolting for the door. When they returned to the waiting room, Syoaran was gone.

In fact, he had taken no time to run to room 207, which had shattered glass and segments of concrete from the hospital wall spread out all over the ground. Gwen was not only standing, but the plastic and metal had been ripped off her leg and her ankle seemed completely—healed. Tossing a deck of black cards in her hand, she stepped forward.

"Gwen! What are you doing?" Syoaran yelled, quickly rushing up to her. Gwen just pulled herself in a blocked position, her eyes dead. _Is she in some sort of sick trance?_ Syoaran quickly glanced at the cards. They looked exactly like Sakura's old ones. Why on earth were they black? And why were there even duplicates to begin with?

"Watery." It was barely audible, but the card glowed-- and immediately a dark blue goddess lashed out. Syoaran expected water, so he quickly defended himself with his Wind talisman. Unexpectedly, the goddess appeared to have a mind of her own—not at all depending on Gwen's commands. Seeing that water simply wouldn't do the trick, she surprised him by throwing a wave of flame at him.

_What the-!_ Syoaran was thrown back and quickly extinguished the flames on his person the old-fashioned way—rolling around the floor like a dog. _Why can this clone use Fire and Water? If she fights against Sakura-- those cards are too powerful. Sakura's would surely be obsolete!_

His mind raced back to when Sakura had briefly described to him what Touya had told her from Miss Kaho. _I thought she said his brother's cards were defective,_ he thought bitterly, blocking off another blow. _Gwen-- a manipulator? No way. Could it be possible that Gwen's strength could make the cards... stronger?_

.-.-.-.-

Sakura broke the scepter off of the chain from her neck, and quickly summoned the crucial item for summoning the spirits of the cards. Holding her right hand over the deck in her left, the Sleep Card immediately reacted to her will and shot up almost automatically into her hand.

"Obey your contract with me, oblige the request that I lay upon you--" Putting an instinctive spin to the throw of her card, Sakura flipped the scepter in her hand. "Sleep!"

The youthful golden goddess spun out, and proceeded to shower a rain of dust as she flew out of the room. Sakura looked out of the door to watch the interns drop down as well as Ashen. Hoping there weren't any dying victims in the hospital, though they would be in emergency and not in the Wings, Sakura reached for another card to move onto the offensive when the Reversed Watery lunged at her. Syoaran practically tackled her out of the way, and was thrown into a wooden table by the hospital bed. A tray of needles rained down upon him, and shattered into millions of tiny shards, engulfing him with medical fluids.

"You cannot defeat me, Li Syoaran." Gwen said, her eyes lifeless, yet wide. She raised her hand again, but in the form of an ancient Chinese seal. "You are a descendent of Clow; for that you will die by my hand. Let that old man know the cards he had so whole-heartedly rejected were the ones that killed the last of his descendants."

Suddenly, the Watery card threw itself at Syoaran, summoning large, sphere of water in her hands, stunning purple, black and dark blue streams of water flowing about it. Its Final Attack.

"Loop!" Sakura screamed, desperate. The card immediately broke into a tight, red line in-between the clone and Syoaran, and the attack was lost in its reflection and struck the Watery from Behind. Syoaran looked closely, his analysis skills mustn't miss a single observation. Details were crucial.

"You. Always you get in the way of **my** descendant." Gwen scowled, turning to Sakura. "I'll get rid of you both!" She tackled Sakura to the ground, her hands aiming for her throat. Syoaran quickly tried to reach her, but the Loop card closed him in. No matter how fast and far he thought he ran, he still found himself in the same square of the hospital room.

"**Sakura!"**

Sakura squeezed her eyes closed. Who in the world was calling her? She choked out a single gasp of air before Gwen succeeding in wrapping her hands completely around her neck before after a split moment, she was knocked off of Sakura.

To her amazement, it was Ashen- totally unaffected by the effects of the Sleepy card. He heaved Gwen off of her-- then proceeded to jerk Sakura up. "Get to your feet!" He demanded. "I can't do much with what I have. You must get those cards away from Gwen, it's the only thing you can do!"

Syoaran ducked another blast of water, as the Loops disengaged itself and Syoaran was free to roam. Doing something Sakura had never seen him do more, Ashen held out another Chinese talisman-- one of his own.

"Firey!"


	11. Released

By: Koneko no Shi a.k.a. Victoria Tang

-.-.-.-.-.-

Koneko notes…: **_Everybody seeks strength. It just might not come in the ways that you expected._**

Ara! you guys like my fic? That's good… I'm curving it so that I can put an end to it soon. I'm guessing if I let it go on too long, it's going to bore you. I for one hate reading long fanfics. Oo So… yeah…. I found a review that implied Sakura giving Syoaran to Gwen. So you're beginning to like her too, hm? That's good—I guess. O.O;

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Sakura broke the sceptre off of the chain from her neck, and summoned the crucial item for summoning the spirits of the cards. Holding her right hand over the deck in her left, the Sleep Card immediately reacted to her will and shot up almost automatically into her hand.

_Obey your contract with me—Sakura Kinomoto! _Putting an instinctive spin to the throw of her card, Sakura flipped the sceptre in her hand. "_Sleep!"_

The youthful golden goddess spun out, and proceeded to shower a rain of dust as she flew out of the room. Sakura gazed out of the door and saw the interns drop down, as well as Kei. Sakura reached for another card, when the Reversed Watery card lunged at her. Syoaran practically tackled her out of the way, and was then thrown into a table by the hospital bed. A tray of needles rained down on him, and shattered into millions of tiny shards and engulfing him with medical fluids.

"You cannot defeat me, Li Syoaran." Gwen said, her eyes lifeless but wide. She raised her and again, but in the form of an ancient Chinese seal. "You are a descendant of Clow, are you not? Then you will die. Today. And let that old man know the cards he had so heartedly rejected were the ones who killed of the last of his descendant blood."

Suddenly, the _Watery_ card threw herself at Syoaran, summoning a large, churning ball of water in her hands. _Reversed Clow Overdrive._

"_Loop__!"_ Sakura screamed, and all thoughts of not making a commotion disappeared from her head. The card immediately broke into a tight, red line in-between the clone and Syoaran, and the attack was lost in its reflection and struck the Watery from behind. Syoaran looked closely, so not to miss a single information analysis in his observation skills.

"You. You always get in the way of **my** descendant." Gwen turned to face Sakura, feeling finally filling in her temporarily emotionless eyes. Pity, that feeling was pure hatred. "I'll get rid of you _both!"_ She lunged forward, and practically knocked Sakura to the ground, her hands aiming to her throat. Syoaran quickly tried to reach her, but the Loop card and closed him in. No matter how fast and far he thought he ran, he kept finding himself in the same square of the hospital room.

**_"SAKURA!"_******

Sakura squeezed her eyes closed. Who in the world was calling her? She choked out a gasp of breath as Gwen succeeded in wrapping her hands around her neck.

To her amazement, it was Kei, totally unaffected by the Sleepy card. He heaved Gwen off of her and jerked Sakura up. "Get to your feet!" He yelled, "I can't do much with what I have. You have to get those cards away from Gwen, that's the only thing you can do."

Syoaran ducked another blast of water, as the Loop disengaged itself and Kei blocked the Watery from Syoaran. Doing something Sakura's never seen before, Kei another one of the Chinese seals with his **hands**. "_Firey__!"_

Suddenly, a large gust of wind suddenly shot upwards, and the familiar fire goddess emerged from the warp of energy emerging from the seal he had made. "_Attack Watery!"_

The goddess immediately blasted at Gwen's Watery, making the cards clash, a fight with will on will.

"You…!" Gwen hissed before her goddess was annihilated, and the impact of her defeat made her collapse onto the floor as the remnants of the Firey's blow ricocheted into her.

"Now! Take the cards from her before she regains her power!" Kei cancelled the Firey, and all three nearly jumped Gwen. Holding her down with one arm, Syoaran reached for the cards when his entire body was lifted off of Gwen and was thrown into the wall.

"Syoaran-kun!" Sakura shrieked in disbelief. The cards had repelled Syoaran, the descendant of Clow Reed. She swallowed and grabbed Gwen's wrist, and tried with all her might to pry the cards from Gwen. Her touch wasn't rejected, but the cards refused to be released from Gwen's grasp. "Somebody, help me!"

Kei grabbed her hands and gave a final, powerful yank, when they both flew backwards into Syoaran, taking the cards with them.

Giving a wild scream, Gwen felt the power drain from her body, and she lost consciousness, dropping once again to the tiling of the hospital room.

Sakura just continued to pant, and then looked in alarm from Syoaran to Kei, the Reversed Clow cards in her grip. "Kei-kun… how did… how did you…?"

Kei got up and dusted him off, before walking over and gingerly picking up his sister and putting her back onto the bed. "I'm sorry about this," he murmured, as his gaze went up to meet hers. "But I wasn't supposed to show you any of this. Please forget it all." He preformed another seal with his hands. "_Erase!"_

"NO!" Sakura screamed, as she whipped out the Shield card. "I'm not going to forget either of you!"

As the Erase began to fight an eager war with the Shield card, Sakura felt the card her sceptre was facing begin to falter and waver. Her hands were trembling as she tried to fight against Kei's will. "Why are you doing this? You know about me, why can't you understand that I won't betray you?"

"It's not about whether or not you betray me, Sakura." Kei said, when he twisted his fingers around and created a different pose with his hands. "_Erase, Overdrive!"_

Suddenly the sceptre was ripped right out of her hands, and Sakura put her arms in front of her face.

**_"NO!"_**


	12. Downhill

Affirmation

By: Victoria Tang a.k.a. Koneko no Shi

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Koneko-chan Says!

Teehee. Thanks for the reviews, support and ideas. It's so pleasing to get feedback. well, I'll try to write some more, but I can't really promise with exams and projects worth fifteen percent of my mark... well, wish me good luck and happy reading!

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Sakura's arms flew in front of her and through her thinly-veiled attempt to strategically defend herself, the motion did nothing to prevent the Erase from easily penetrating her protective barrier and seeping straight into her memories. Instantly, she felt her vision blur from the invader and she grabbed at her head, giving out a cry.

All of a sudden, she couldn't even remember what was going on. Already had the powerful dosage begun to work its magic. It took her frantic searching, but she once again fell upon what was happening to her, relieved that it hadn't completely affected her just yet. "Don't do it, Ashen!" Sakura pleaded, doubling over from the intrusion. "I don't want this—I don't _want_ to forget you!"

"It's not an option, Sakura. I really do like you. But you're fighting the inevitable. You're facing my strongest talisman with your will alone. Unprotected, you stand no chance. Just forget, and Gwen and I will return to China. You will carry on your life with Syoaran here, in Japan."

A fuzzy gray haze was taking over Sakura's field of vision now. She couldn't remember what it was Gwen did to have made her so upset. She looked up, and could only see Ashen standing there in front of her with Gwen crumpled at his legs. Suddenly, anger seemed to dominate any other emotion in her body—both hurt and betrayal churning deep in her gut.

How in the world was it _her_ fault that she knew Gwen's life story, when Ashen had willingly told her that on his own account? It wasn't _her_ fault that Gwen possessed those cards and tried to use them. And it most _definitely_ wasn't her fault that the two of them had decided to reveal their powers to her. So what right did this boy have, in all his good intentions, to erase her precious memories like this? Did _she_ try to erase _his_ memories? No!

Standing up straight, suddenly feeling far more indomitable and confident, Sakura's fists clenched at her sides. "I said_ stop it_!"

A bright jolt of white energy snapped viciously at Ashen, and he jumped back in surprise, causing him to break contact with his talisman for just a moment. His eyes widened in awe as he watched the Erase spell unwind its magic. Could this girl's _will_ have done such a—no, it was near possible. A will may be strong, but its potency lies within mental strength. It could not do physical damage upon the Erase to have…

But there was no other way of looking at it. Did this mean that Sakura's mental strength was beyond Erase's power? How could something so overlooked affect the Caster of the Talisman?

"Ashen!"

Ashen turned temporarily to gaze at the door behind him when it burst open. A short, Chinese girl stood there in a readied fighting stance he recognized from Syoaran's own sparring training. "Meiling!"

"You promised you that you wouldn't use those, Ash. If you insist on doing any more, I'm going to have to break mine. Honestly, I can't leave any of you guys alone without having you get involved in something big and potentially apocalyptic."

"Meiling-- stop. We just want to go back to Hong Kong. It's our secrets we're dealing with, and we should be able to dispose of them from other people as we wish. We have the power to."

Meiling scowled at Ashen. "Don't be ridiculous! It's your fault for letting your guard down and telling them to begin with. You have no right to fool around with the free will and memory of other people!"

"I'm no going to stop. Quit trying to act so mature about this when you know just as well as we do that this for the better."

"Don't be stupid! Gwen was out of control just now with those guards. They poison the mind of their manipulator. If you're not going to stop, I'm just going to have to make you."

"Martial arts won't work on him, Meiling. He's got a barrier." Syoaran warned, limping to the wall for support.

"Think what you will." Meiling grinned, putting two fingers up in-between her eyes.

"Meiling, stop it!" Ashen yelled, but he was still holding up his Erase talismsn. And that was enough of an invitation for her.

Pulling her hand away from her eyes, a long, white ribbon seemed to withdraw from absolutely nowhere with a string of silver bells. Closing her eyes, Meiling closed her eyes and formed a seal of her own, her fingers intertwining around the folds of the ribbon. She began chanting something completely incomprehensible.

"You know you're not doing the right thing for them. What if this dark power takes over you, like it did me, once? Saku can't fight an enemy she doesn't know she has. _**Fight!"**_

The glowing goddess shot up from the light in her hands, and sprang towards Kei, piercing his barrier in a second and knocking him to the ground. "You know that my seals are stronger than yoursi! Why did you break your promise? You know I can sense when you cast a spell. You know that I know about Gwen's cards. I'm the one you stole your powers from, Kei. Twelve years ago. And now you're using them as if you're superior to me! What's with that, I told you to stop—and you don't?"

Kei coughed from the blow, gripping his stomach. But when he focused his eyesight upwards to look at Meiling, the light from the hospital room cast her entire body into a shadow. He couldn't see her features. The only things he saw, were the piercing bright, purple eyes, that were mixing in with Meiling's original red ones.

_The toll the seals take on her..._

_It could cost her life._


	13. Someone Else's Secret

Affirmation

By: Victoria Tang a.k.a. Koneko no Shi

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Koneko-chan Says!

LOL! Thanks for reviewing so much now xD hehe it's so pleasing to get reviews. Grins Well, I'll try to write more, but I can't really promise with exams and projects that are worth fifteen percent of my mark… well, I try my best. Wish me good luck and happy reading! D

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"NO!" Sakura screamed, as she whipped out the Shield card. "I'm not going to forget either of you!"

As the Erase began to fight an eager war with the Shield card, Sakura felt the card her sceptre was facing begin to falter and waver. Her hands were trembling as she tried to fight against Kei's will. "Why are you doing this? You know about me, why can't you understand that I won't betray you?"

"It's not about whether or not you betray me, Sakura." Kei said, when he twisted his fingers around and created a different pose with his hands. "_Erase, Overdrive!"_

Suddenly the sceptre was ripped right out of her hands, and Sakura put her arms in front of her face.

**_"NO!"_**

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She braced herself defensively, but it didn't help the Erase card seep into her memories. Instantly her vision blurred and a brilliant flash of white took over. Very slowly, the white got streaked with an never-ending strip of black. That kept on growing. Suddenly, she couldn't remember what was doing this. She was beginning to forget.

"Stop! _Kei!"_Sakura screamed, clutching her head in her hands and doubling over with the intrusion. "I don't want to forget you! I don't want to…!"

"It's not an option, Sakura. Don't fight the inevitable, you're facing Erase's Overdrive with your _will _alone You're never going to win. Just forget about this, and we'll go back. Then you can carry on your life here with Syoaran."

The black was taking over Sakura's thoughts, now. She couldn't remember Gwen's face. Her hands released her face and she looked up. The blurs that she saw were what was left of the vision she could see of Kei. Gwen, slumped against the door. "Stop—Stop it! Please!"

Suddenly Kei's hands flinched, breaking his seal for just a movement. His eyes widened awkwardly, and continued to look at the seal on his hands. _Could this girl's will__ have…? No, it can't be. A will is a will, it's not physical. It couldn't have done something that would've affected the Caster of the Seals._

"SAKURA!" Tomoyo put a hand to her mouth as she backed back out of the hospital door and into a wall. Gwen got up limply. "You're not going anywhere…" she panted weakly, and she dropped the cards again. They scattered over a small area of the hospital floor. A wall. Tomoyo looked around her… now that the only exit was sealed off, they wouldn't be able to leave unless Sakura—or those two—did something. And at the state that Sakura was in, she wouldn't be able to do a thing.

"What are you doing to her! Stop it!" Tomoyo's hands clenched when she had raised them to her chest, a habit she had picked up from years, making her feel safe. "Kei-kun! Please, stop this! What are you doing to Sakura?"

"To…mo—" Sakura squeezed her eyes shut again. She couldn't bear this. She couldn't remember what had happened since the day she ate lunch with Syoaran after she had been introduced to the new student girl.

Suddenly Gwen seized Tomoyo, and pushed her onto the floor besides a crouching Sakura. "Kei—her too, it'll be bad, if something happens when Sakura doesn't know something that this girl does."

Kei just nodded, and focused, he switched fingers on the seal, making the window his hands made bigger. He focused on the two, Tomoyo looking like a deer trapped in headlights, and squinted his eyes. "_Erase_!"

For the split second that Kei had reformed his seal, Sakura's memory fought to return. And so it had—a little bit. Kei glared. _This can't be. She lasted this long on her **will**. But it's almost over. To finish off Sakura-san's memory, then we can just leave and pretend this didn't happen. At least, to them._

"**_Kei!"_**

Kei broke his concentration when he glanced back. The wall stared blankly back at him. Then it was practically blasted apart from a series of very familiar moves from Chinese martial arts.

"Honestly, can't leave either of you for a second without you getting involved in something big."

Meiling went back into a stance. "You promised me you wouldn't use that, Kei. If you're going to break your promise, I'm going to break mine."

"Meiling—stop—he has to do this. We want to go back to Hong Kong—our memory and our secrets can't be trusted by them, even if they give us their strongest word. We can't trust them. Maybe for a century or two, but what comes when they're older and can't remember a promise?"

Meiling shook her head. "No! You're wrong. Sakura, Tomoyo, Syoaran-kun… they can be trusted on this. You all know Syoaran. And Syoaran trusts Sakura with his life. And Sakura trusts Tomoyo with her all. She won't betray you!"

"I'm not going to stop. This way we're doing them no harm. We can just go back to normal! Meiling, stop tryng to act so mature when you know that it would be better if it's this way!"

"You're wrong, Kei. What if one day something happens to you and Meiling? It would be bad if Sakura doesn't know what she's up against." She lowered her head, her eyes setting into a glare. "Kei-kun, if you're not going to stop, I'm going to have to make you."

"Martial arts won't work on him, Meiling. He's got a barrier. You're just going to get hurt yourself."

"Barriers that _he_ makes without a seal only protect against physical moves, not magic." Meiling shot back. Gwen stared blankly. "What—you—you don't have magic! …Do you?"

"Meiling, stop!" Kei yelled, but he was still holding his seal. That was enough of an invitation for her.

Holding up a white ribbon with a string of silver bells, Meiling closed her eyes and formed a seal of her own. "Kei—this was for breaking your promise to me. And for trying to hurt my friends. What you're doing isn't the best thing for them. What if it takes over you, like it did me, once? Sakura can't fight an enemy she doesn't know she has. **_Fight!"_**

The glowing goddess shot up from the light in her hands, and sprang towards Kei, piercing his barrier in a second and knocking him to the ground. Meiling ran to stand above him, and Sakura broke the last of the spell, practically falling to the ground on Syoaran, who's eyes were open wide, he was trying to remember. And it was, slowly coming back.

"You **know** that my seals are stronger than you, Kei! Why did you break your promise? You know I can sense when you cast a spell. You know that I know about Gwen's cards. I'm the one you stole your powers from, Kei. Twelve years ago. And now you're using them as if you're superior to me! What's with that, I told you to stop—and you don't?"

Kei coughed from the blow, gripping him stomach. But when he focused his eyesight upwards to look at Meiling, the light from the hospital room cast her entire body into a shadow. He couldn't see her features. The only things he saw, were the piercing bright, purple eyes, that were mixing in with Meiling's original red ones.

"Oh no." Kei struggled to his feet. "Meiling, revert back! If you stay like that for too long—you'll become that _demon_ again…! Stop, please—I won't hurt them anymore. Just come back!"

The swirling wind around Meiling stopped, and the aura around her became less intense. Her eyes began to fade back to its normal shade of red. Slumping against the wall, she shivered. "That was… that was too much for me. Like before, I couldn't control it. I can't control it. The most I can do now is revert back to my normal self. But…"

Gwen looked mortified. Her big eyes seemed even larger than they were originally.

"… Mei…ling?" Sakura asked numbly, trying to get to her legs. "What… are you—was that… stronger than…" her gaze dropped to her hands, where she loosely clutched the Sakura Cards. "Are you stronger than I am?"

Meiling looked wide-eyed from Sakura, to Gwen, to Syoaran, to Kei. They were all staring at her with dumbfounded expressions. Then Tomoyo also got up limply. "I… I suppose you can say that. Syoaran was… the descendant to Clow Reed. I guess I would be the descendant to his brother. But… Clow Reed's brother… Kashi—his cards were superior to Clow Reed's. He just didn't know it until he died. That's why I'm stronger than the one destined to hold the Clow Cards… now known as the Sakura Cards."

"How come I didn't know about this? Not even Mother…"

"Mother knew, Syoaran-kun. Almost everybody knew. You were almost the only one who didn't." Meiling slumped onto the ground, exhausted from refraining herself from her terrible double self. "Did you honestly think Mother would keep me with you if I didn't have a bigger purpose…? Everyone in our family is special. If I didn't have these abilities, she would have kicked me onto the streets."

"You lie. Mother's not like that, she wouldn't kick you out, Meiling. I…"

Meiling grinned weakly. "You know something, Syoaran? You're just… like… your older brother…"

_…Brother?_


End file.
